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In this chapter, the contemporary role of adult education is examined and the key features of postmodernity and the accompanying contemporary socio-economic and cultural changes which are impacting on the educational scene are highlighted. The author argues that changing conceptions of knowledge and the need to understand knowledge in terms of its location in different social practices mean that lifelong learning also needs to be viewed differently. Lifelong learning, he argues, is not simply a structure of provision, but needs to be understood in terms of its significations i.e. the meanings it has and the meanings it gives. Consequently, practitioners of adult education need to rethink their conceptions of adult learning and their role as institutional providers of such learning.