What New Confucianism Can Offer to Sport for Development and Peace Research

Sport for development aims to use sport to achieve crucial outcomes for children and youth, such as learning, health, empowerment, and protection. While empirical data and interventions continue to show promises in achieving social changes, less is examined in the epistemological and conceptual basis of these works and how knowledge is produced in sport for development research. Existing sport for development research often has its theoretical influences from, for example, feminist theory, critical development perspective, ecological systems theory, human capital theory, theory of planned behaviour. This chapter offers a turn to New Confucianism by first outlining its origin, contemporary development, and the major thinkers. New Confucianism is a systematic response to Western philosophy from the Chinese philosophical tradition in the 1930s. It directs attention to the differences between Western and Chinese philosophy, recognising the strengths of Western culture and philosophy alongside focusing on how Chinese culture and Confucian philosophy can provide metaphysical insights that were not found in the West. The chapter concludes by highlighting the epistemological and conceptual advancements New Confucianism can bring for future theoretical work in sport for development research.