Agnieszka Bron Knihy

The relationship between adult education research and theory is one of tension. On the one hand, there are several empirical studies carried out without any theoretical guidance. On the other hand, there is theorizing and theory building taking place without any empirical support. Social Science Theories in Adult Education Research, the third volume of the Bochum Studies in International Adult Education series, pleads for the importance of the combination of empirical and theoretical work in a symbiotic way. Good empirical studies need theoretical guidance and good theory building needs a solid empirical basis; thus the book explores and displays the most often used theories and theoretical perspectives in adult education research in the last decade within the European discourse and analyzes their potentials for adult education research. The chapters presented in this volume have a more or less similar underlying structure. They display the most important contours of the theory or perspective in question; they analyze and discuss the relation to adult education research, focusing on examples of other researcher's work; and they give an outlook on what can be expected of the respective paradigm's in the future.

At the end of the twentieth century, the concept of knowledge advanced to become one of the central factors of society and seemed to gain in importance in the twenty-first century, mostly understood as know-how and technical knowledge. Next to globalisation, knowledge seems to be the leading term both in public, as well as in scientific, discourses. What is more, the prominent status of knowledge is also reflected in the fact that it is used particularly in social sciences to explain complex social transitions and changes. Thus, one of the most widely discussed and debated social diagnoses takes place under the term Knowledge Society. However, the academic discipline of adult education has not yet profoundly engaged in the discourse on Knowledge Society. This book brings together a cross-section of European researchers in adult education who have contributed to the discourse on Knowledge Society from various perspectives. By presenting their recent research results, the book provides an overview of key concepts within the European discourse which, according to observations, is only at the beginning.

" With the first volume of Bochum Studies in International Adult Education we are launching a new series of publications from the Chair of Adult Education at the Ruhr-University of Bochum. BSIAE addresses not only researchers, university teachers and students of adult education but also those from related disciplines. While not explicitly addressing practitioners, except for providing them with up-to-date research overviews, each issue will also address politicans and policy makers. Each volume will be organised around one topic or issue which is of interest, importance or of particular relevance for adult education in general. This particular topic will be considered from various points of view, i. e. comparative, historical, gender, socio-political and cultural. The first volume of BSIAE intends to look closely at the topcis Language - Mobility - Identity and attempts to discuss these issues from the point of view of adult education. The intention of this volume is to create a compilation of different viewpoints and critical analyses on the three topics which together form an overview of their interrelation and their relevance for European development, adult education and adult's learning. "