The proposal’s objective is to identify and examine how globalisation processes are redefining the nature and scope of adult education in response to global challenges by asking the following research questions:1. How do political entities, interest groups and other actors influence the transnational policy development process and how, in turn, do they respond to transnational policies in adult education?2.How does international cooperation affect state policies concerning adult education, planned and implemented, in three socio-economic and political systems that are representative of the North-South division?GLOBE-A challenges traditional categorisations applied to studying adult education in Western societies or in transition and less developed countries and attempts to reconceptualise existing relations between adult education, policy analysis, and political and social science.The study adopts a mixed-method design, were new empirical data will be of qualitative nature, while existing quantitative data will play a supportive role, and it follows a comparative approach that combines a vertical and a horizontal perspectives. The vertical perspective explores how the global and the local mutually shape each other by looking at the flow of policies between transnational entities, regional organizations and local governments. The horizontal perspective examines interactions and disjunctions across sites in Europe, Northern and Latin America by exploring how changes in transnational, regional and local policies influence educational practices in multiple sites.GLOBE-A is expected to generate knowledge specific to a sample of world regions, while developing a new perspective. This perspective could be applied to study adult education in contrasting socio-economic, cultural and political contexts worldwide. Further it will enable policy makers, researchers and practitioners to take into account both national and trans-national factors that shape adult education.