An Analysis of Sports Development in South Korea: Case Studies of ‘School Sport’, ‘Sport for All’ and ‘Elite Sport’

Elite sport in South Korea has improved dramatically over the past 60 years. However, focusing only on elite sport policy by the government has led to problems and a gap between school sport, sport for all and elite sport, which is the center of the current debate in the sport policy area. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze sports development in South Korea, where it lacks of data about sport policy which adopted the macro and meso level approaches.To achieve the goals mentioned above, the thesis is divided into three parts: (1) school sport, (2) sport for all and (3) elite sport. All subjects will deal with the development of sport policy and the structure of the sport system. The thesis will define the notion of sports development and introduce the Korean history and cultural background in the literature review. In addition, the research will analyze case studies of the three topics in terms of the process of sport policy change and structure of sport system in South Korea. Theoretical approaches will be conducted as groundwork. The research interprets sports development by integrating macro and meso levels of analysis to explain the complicated Korean society. Methodologically a literature and documentary inquiry will be also conducted and semi-structured interviews will be undertaken with senior officers and experts who relate to sport institutions and organizations in South Korea. A document analysis will be carried out by gathering documents and data where three cases will be examined in depth. The expected results should address not only an empirical but also theoretical relevance.

Consequently, this research will contribute to informing about sports developments in South Korea, which currently lacks information about international comparative data in sport policy area.