Prezentowana publikacja dotyczy wybranych zagadnień związanych z kulturą fizyczną i zdrowotną współczesnego człowieka. Autorzy – specjaliści z zakresu pedagogiki, nauk medycznych i nauk o kulturze fizycznej – podejmują m.in. problematykę wartości kultury fizycznej w procesie kształcenia i wychowania, współczesnych czynników promocji zdrowia i edukacji zdrowotnej, zdrowotnych uwarunkowań aktywności ruchowej czy społecznych kontekstów idei olimpijskiej. Tematyka ta wpisuje się w ważny nurt rozważań, w którym poszukuje się nowych rozwiązań pedagogicznych, zwłaszcza w odniesieniu do idei edukacji olimpijskiej i zdrowotnej.This paper aims to highlight the reasons behind the revival of universally accessible sport among
the Polish public from the perspective of the social and cultural change that has taken place in Poland.
The goal is to substantiate this revival through social sciences and theories of social change that dominate
such sciences. The analysis below identifies two groups of key factors that have stimulated the
public’s participation in universally accessible sport. The first group are social factors such as a surge
in the number of people with higher education, the statistically increased affluence of Polish people,
a higher percentage of white-collar workers, migration from rural to urban areas, and improved access
to sports equipment and facilities. Factors in the other group are of cultural nature and include the following:
the prevalence of aesthetic and hedonistic models of physical culture in society, the increased
prestige and significance of sport consumption in the public’s consumption of culture, and the activation
of informal social control in society, leading to positive sanctions for engaging in sporting activity
and negative sanctions for refusing to do so. This group of factors also includes a growing number of
people who, guided by rational and empirical truths, cease to interpret the success of others through
the categories of theological or biological determinism and instead, they opt to act individually and
together with others, also when it comes to health and fitness. Finally, a growing percentage of people
accept the truth that good health primarily depends on prevention and lifestyle rather than hospital
treatment and medication
