ABSTRACT
Two of the key issues addressed in contemporary policy debates in Europe and beyond are the role of adult education as a means of contributing to social change and how adult education as a space can shape democratic citizens. What these issues have in common, besides outlining the specific role of adult education, is that they entail certain normative assumptions concerning who the citizen should be – or rather become – in order to be included and part of society. In other words, adults are not yet citizens, despite being adults and thus already citizens in a formal sense. What is at stake is that the adult has to become a citizen by engaging in adult education. In this book, we turn our attention towards these kinds of normative claims about who the adult should become through education, and what capacities and skills adults need to develop in order to become included in society as ‘full’ citizens. In order to position our argument, this chapter provide a short overview of the current policy debates on adult educations role in the shaping of citizens, as well as situating our argument in the wider literature on citizenship education. We also outline out main discursive theorisation conceptualising how we approach the education of citizens. The chapter ends with an outline of the book.
