Viele Köche… Erwachsenenbildung zwischen Kompetenzchaos und Multilevelgovernance

This article provides insight into the fragmented constellation of those active in Austrian adult education at a political and administrative level. At the same time, this constellation reflects the unresolved constitutional issues and the broad diversification of funding sources. And yet: though the competences and funding of Austrian adult education are so complex, it is precisely for this reason that they satisfy the requirement of rethinking political control and administrative cooperation. The diversity of stakeholders in the political arena can be interpreted as a form of governance instead of as a chaos of competences. And the governance perspective provides the opportunity for the interests of all groups with a stake to be taken up. The implementation of the national strategy on lifelong learning LLL:2020, the strategy presented and discussed in the article from this point of view, will show whether and how models of multilevel governance allow effective and efficient performance on different administrative levels.