Country Club
A country club (in some countries also country for short ) is a park-like area operated by a club or association with exclusive access requirements with sports and recreation facilities in rural areas or on the periphery of large cities.
The term is used both for the facility and for the operating club or association. The term is also used for closed residential complexes in the middle of such recreation parks. Country clubs with accommodation options for members within the complexes also approach gated communities .
Country Club as a recreational facility
As a recreational facility, country clubs offer their members not only sports facilities and recreational areas but also accommodation and restaurants. The focus is often on golf , tennis and equestrian sports . The clubs tend to have high membership fees and restrictive admission regulations, so that they are mainly used by the upper middle and upper classes. The architecture of the buildings is mostly based on the classic villa , ranch or the manor house of a plantation .
Country Club as a residential complex
The first country clubs opened in Argentina in the 1940s. Initially, they were purely recreational areas , in which the upper class owned a weekend house in the country and devoted themselves to sports such as golf, horse riding and tennis.
Since the 1980s, country clubs have also been built purely as residential areas , also in the sense of an exclusive gated community and experienced strong growth at times. The feeling of insecurity in the big cities and the contact with nature played a role in the boom, which led to the upper class withdrawing into these clubs and almost only leaving them to work. This in turn led to the fact that some country clubs today often have a very diverse infrastructure with shops, schools and entertainment venues.
A trend back to the metropolitan area has been developing since 2000. In terms of architecture, some inner-city clubs and sports facilities are now based on the country house and villa architecture of the country clubs.
Country club membership as a political battleground
As a country club Republicans are in the US wealthy members of the Republican Party called that clearly distinguish themselves from less affluent citizens in social issues such as abortion , Political Ecology and gay marriage have more liberal views and to a lesser extent religiously active.
In the case of prominent democratic multimillionaires such as Ned Lamont and John Kerry , their membership in exclusive country clubs and campaign appearances there were criticized by political opponents.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Guetos urbanos ( Memento of the original dated May 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Report on country clubs in the Argentine news magazine Noticias
- ↑ El fenómeno de quienes dejan los countries y regresan a la ciudad , La Nación , March 5, 2007
- ^ The Country Club Image Christian Science Monitor August 14, 1992.
- ↑ Americans Discover New Way to Worship: The Study Group Christian Science Monitor , Nov. 26, 1996
- ^ New York Times : Lieberman Rival Seeks Support Beyond Iraq Issue. Patrick Healy, July 19, 2006, accessed 11/2008. Lamont resigned from the Greenwich Country Club shortly before the start of his election campaign because it was "too white and too rich"
