ABSTRACT
Knowledge production in the social sciences is neither neutral nor value-free; beyond scientific and technical knowledge, it always involves a number of judgements and decisions by the social scientist (Flyvebjerg, 2001). Several such judgements and decisions were embedded in the conceptual framework and the heuristic model for studying transformations in adult education policy presented in chapter one. This chapter unveils the ontological and epistemological assumptions that informed such judgements and decisions. Moreover, it details the research design of the empirical study, the set of data that had been gathered and used for the analysis presented in part III and IV of this book, as well as the analytical strategy applied to interpret and, thus, make sense of this data.
