This article is based on an investigation carried out among non-governmental local development organizations devoted to adult education in the north of Portugal. In it, we question the theoretical relation which considers adult education as a factor of local development. The data show that in the case under study, although these organizations carry out varied and frequent activities of adult education, the way in which they are put into practice will compromise the previously enunciated causal relationship.
adult education; local development; non-governmental organizations