Conference Program

Do adult learners support adult education programmes? Does policy design matter for triggering learners’ support, opposition or indifference towards educational programme? What are the effects of policy design and implementation of adult education programmes on adult learners’ democratic and civic behaviour?

Drawing on historical institutionalism, the policy feedback effects on mass politics can help answering these questions by unveiling how policy design distributes resources and sends interpretative messages to beneficiaries (Bruch et al 2010) and, in turn, how these shape or unmake beneficiaries’ demand for that specific policy (Pierson, 1993; Bussi et al, 2022). Moreover, policy feedback scholars have also investigated the effect of policy design on beneficiaries’ democratic and civic behaviour, such as volunteering (Mettler, 2002).

Right and far-right parties are in power in several European countries and their conception of social policies (Fenger, 2018), including adult education (Grotlüschen et al 2025), might have long lasting effects on how policies are designed and their effect on democratic aspects ranging from adult learners’ opinion towards policies to individual civic engagement (Larsen, 2019). For this reason, this approach is promising because it delves into the policy-politics dynamics and their democratic implications.

Moreover, while policy feedback effects on mass politics dealing with social and educational policies has received attention (Garritzmann & Wehl, 2025; Mettler 2005), there are hardly any studies focusing on adult learners. While this can be due to the fragmented nature across policy areas (Kalenda and Desjardins, 2025), it is argued in this contribution that is possible to develop a new research agenda developing adopting the policy feedback effect on mass politics as theoretical stance.

The paper starts by contextualising policy feedback effects and its mass politics aspect. It secondly delves into the recent literature dealing with social and educational policies. The third part presents how the main concepts linked to the policy feedback effects on mass politics could apply to adult education policy and their beneficiaries as well as how it articulates with existing adult education policy research. The fourth part uses the case of training policies for the unemployed as an example. A final part concludes on the limits and benefits of this approach.