In this book, Ronald M. Cervero and Arthur L. Wilson offer a theory that accounts for planners' lived experience and provides a guide for developing effective educational programs for adults. The book presents three planning case studies that illustrate how power, interests, ethical commitment, and negotiation are central to planners' everyday work. These stories offer guidance on how to respond to the realities of practice and clearly point out that the technical work of planning is always political. Working the Planning Table reveals how people work to negotiate educational and political outcomes for multiple stakeholders. After a Preface, this book is divided into the following two parts and seven chapters. Part I: Working the Planning Table: A Theory for Practice, contains: (1) Seeing What Matters: Education as a Struggle for Knowledge and Power; (2) Practicing Educational Planning: Three Stories; and (3) Negotiating Democratically for Educational and Political Outcomes. Part II: Working the Planning Table: The Theory in Practice, contains: (4) Negotiating the Program's Needs-Assessment; (5) Negotiating the Program's Educational, Management, and Political Objectives; (6) Negotiating the Program's Instructional Design and Implementation; and (7) Negotiating the Program's Administrative Organization and Operation. An Index is included.