ABSTRACT
The origins of sociology itself lay in that of industrialism and the beginnings in Europe of modern urban society, and the application of scientific method to the understanding of society as it took on its contemporary forms. In the United States too, the origins of sociology and the development of adult education theory were not unconnected, since it was believed on all sides that with scientific understanding would come the improvement of society. The reasons why adult education theory tends towards prescriptive and less towards comparative policy analysis along the lines of alternative ideological policy models are quite complex. The fact that such policy debate as has taken place has done so in a professional rather than a public context has definitely restricted the scope of adult education discourse to conceptual and prescriptive issues. Adult learning has tended to become an a priori category of ideas and concepts of adult education.
