Identifying Korean Sport for Development = Identifying Korean Sport for Development

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In recent years, sport researchers have been interested in the sport for development (SFD) movement. The key development in SFD practices, however, is characterized by the shift of its domestic recipients to one focused more on international development initiatives. However, the contemporary meaning of SFD tends to focus on international development, leaving a sense of its absence by Korean sport researchers still focused on its domestic use. One problem may come from the confusion of SFD as a research term. Korean sport researchers rarely mention SFD although some of these research initiatives clearly resemble SFD practices. For example, the cases used in analysis process and/or analytic results of sports diplomacy research closely link to SFD programs. These researchers may simply have interpreted SFD within the paradigms of sport diplomacy. Therefore, the clarification of this concept might broaden Korean sport research in such a way to distinguish between sports diplomacy and SFD research practices. It may also encourage more attention to the developmental purposes of these initiatives as well. In addition, Korean sport research has mainly been limited to empirical descriptions and assessments rather than actual theory whereas Western SFD research enjoys a rich diversity of theoretical frameworks. In this paper, I explained SFD by distinguishing its characteristics in relation to sport development and sport diplomacy. I then analyzed the existing relevant literature on SFD in Korean research, and propose an explanation as to why Korean researchers have focused on the developmental effects and critiques of sporting event and diplomacy. In addition to that, I expanded the argument to why the research regarding SFD is necessary for Korean sports research. I also delineated how SFD has been studied in Western research by focusing on theory and/or concepts used to guide the research and analysis of results. It would be also helpful to identify the possibilities of applying theoretical approaches to the Korean SFD research. It is the hope that this paper, as the first step for studying Korean SFD research, can begin to lay the groundwork for future SFD research in Korea.