This book explores why those involved in educating post-school young people and adults have quietly abandoned the term 'education' in favour of 'learning', and reveals key features of the policy environment around adult education. It addresses the developments that have occurred in the area; asks whether increased state awareness actually helps give a voice to the grass-roots needs of local communities, or whether it creates patterns of dependency; and looks at the growing culture of monitoring and testing by governments and research institutes, and how this information can be used and abused. This book was originally published as a special issue of Globalisation, Societies and Education.

Introduction - Adult and lifelong education: global, national and local perspectives 1. Making educational spaces through boundary work: territorialisation and 'boundarying' 2. 'Ducking and diving' adult educator agency in testing times: insights from England and New Zealand 3. Immigrants as active citizens: exploring the volunteering experience of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver 4. Lifelong education and learning, societal project and competitive advantage: tensions and ambivalences in policy and planning of educational change in Portugal 5. Filling the gaps: the role and impact of international non-governmental organisations in 'Education for All' 6. Global, regional and local influences on adult literacy policy in England 7. Comparative performance measures, globalising strategies and literacy policy in Scotland 8. The media construction of an adult literacy agenda in Canada

Marcella Milana is Associate Professor at the University of Verona, Italy. She is a board member of the European Society for the Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA), joint convenor of its Research Network on Policy Studies in Adult Education, and co-Editor of the International Journal of Lifelong Education. Her research interests include comparative and adult education, lifelong learning policy, European governance, education for democratic citizenship, participation in adult education, and the professionalization of adult educators. Her latest book is Global Perspectives on Adult Education and Learning Policy (with Tom Nesbit, 2015).

John Holford is Robert Peers Professor of Adult Education at the University of Nottingham, UK, and an Editor of the International Journal of Lifelong Education. His current research interests lie in European lifelong learning policy and the impact of neoliberalism on adult and higher education. His recent books include Adult Education Policy and the European Union: Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives (with Marcella Milana, 2014), and Lifelong Learning in Europe: National Patterns and Challenges (with Ellu Saar & Odd-Bjorn Ure, 2013).

Vida A. Mohorcic spolar is an independent researcher. She also teaches at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. A joint convenor of the ESREA Research Network on Policy Studies in Adult Education, she has been researching and writing about adult policy, adult literacy, participation in adult education, and democratic citizenship. She has been active in European and UNESCO projects and is currently involved in PIAAC (Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competences).