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Abstract
The use of sport to promote social development and economic growth has been studied by Korean scholars focusing on the domestic effects of mega sport events or of ‘sport for all’ initiatives. Meanwhile, the concept of ‘sport for development’ (SFD) in English-language sport studies literature nowadays tends to focus on the use of sport as a strategy to foster international development, wherein sport initiatives are funded and facilitated by industrialized nations to support the socioeconomic growth of developing economies. However, Korean sport scholars examining initiatives similar to SFD practices focus on the benefits of SFD for South Korea with regard to sport diplomacy and have yet to further enhance our understanding of these programmes’ role in advancing international development and relations through theoretically informed critical analysis. In this article, we review Korean research on the contribution of sport to domestic social and economic development as well as sport diplomacy research on Korean international SFD programmes and we summarize Western research on sport for development by focusing on the use of the social capital and the critical theory approaches. We conclude by suggesting how these theoretical frameworks used in Western research could be introduced in order to enhance current research on Korean international sport initiatives as we invite Korean scholars to diversify and expand the current thinking on sport for international development.