Negotiating border-crossings when ‘adult education’ meets ‘vocational learning’. Comparative historical notes on defining the ‘research object’

Abstract This paper offers a theoretical perspective on socio-historical research addressing the social organisation of communication and learning as cultural practices. It is critical mapping field ‘adult education’ in terms ‘absences’ regarding historical dimensions ‘organised adult learning’ investigated. comparative exploration vocational organised that characterise divergent historiographies Netherlands Germany until 1945. Post-1945 policy repertoires are explored shift from ‘collective employability’ stressing permanent education advancement towards construction neoliberal late 1960s articulating ‘individualised employability’. The conclusion argues should focus recovering shifts breaks conjunctions practices relationships between ‘adult’ ‘vocational’ learning.