Navigating South Korea’s Development Studies: A Compressed Transformation

This essay reviews the historical evolution of development studies in South Korea. South Korea has been widely recognized as one of the few success cases of economic ‘catch-up’ in modern history. Given its dynamic and remarkable development history, the South Korean case has garnered significant attention and discussion in the field of development studies. In this essay, we trace how key features and themes in South Korean development studies have changed over time. To navigate the trajectory of South Korea’s development studies from the early period, we conduct a content analysis of relevant journal articles published in top Korean journals. We demonstrate that development studies in South Korea emerged in tandem with the country’s rapid economic growth, and major themes of discussion in the field of development studies have been centered on the country’s developmental state model itself. We also highlight that South Korea’s entry into the OECD DAC in 2010 marked a critical turning point, shifting the focus of development studies from the political economy of the developmental statecraft to more varied approaches within the field. We identify four categories of diversified specializations that illustrate the advanced elaboration of contemporary development studies in South Korea: policy-oriented approach, development actor approach, sector/area-based analysis, and reflexivist meta-analysis.