Producing sport for development research in Brazil (2000–2020): An integrative review of scientific production and theoretical trends – pedagogy, public policy and epistemic autonomy

Through an integrative literature review following Whittemore and Knafl, this article examines Brazilian scientific production on social sports projects published between 2000 and 2020. Moving beyond a descriptive mapping, the study investigates how local scholarship translates, explains and produces knowledge about the global concept of Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) within the domestic academic ecosystem. Based on a corpus of 57 open-access, Portuguese-language peer-reviewed articles retrieved from four Latin American databases (LILACS, BVS, SciELO and Redalyc), the analysis evaluates nine key analytical dimensions: (1) Thematic Area; (2) Theoretical Framework; (3) Location; (4) Modality; (5) Level of Development; (6) Field of Activity; (7) Year of Publication; (8) Journals; and (9) Research Results. The findings demonstrate that Brazilian research is primarily mediated through Sports Pedagogy (28.0%) and Public Policies (26.3%), prioritising themes of Social Cohesion and Education (79.6% combined). Rather than adopting Anglophone critical sociology or generic SDP frameworks, national scholarship frames SDP predominantly as a state-led, pedagogical intervention grounded in Physical Education. However, a marked regional concentration in the South and Southeast (82.5%) reveals a ‘fractal inequality’ that mirrors global centre-periphery dynamics within Brazil's higher education system. We conclude that while this pedagogical-policy focus reflects a localised form of epistemic autonomy, it also contributes to a double isolation – insulating national research from global critical SDP debates while obscuring regional disparities within Brazil's internal periphery.