The Purposes of Adult Education: A Short Introduction focuses on three key dimensions of adult education - education for the economy, education for social change, and education for diversity. It explores adult education's theoretical roots as well as the many ways in which it has been successfully practiced in Canada and elsewhere. It concludes with an overview of adult education for the twenty-first century, with special attention to the issues of distance education and computer-mediated communication. This second edition updates and expands the first edition, especially in the areas of workplace learning and with respect to the fast-moving technologies that continue to affect the content and delivery of adult education as we move forward in the twenty-first century. The Purposes of Adult Education: A Short Introduction is intended as a companion volume for use with other adult education texts, in particular Contexts of Adult Education: Canadian Perspectives (2006) and The Foundations of Adult Education in Canada (1998).