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This review addresses the much discussed and controversial category of popular education from three disciplinary perspectives. The social and cultural history of popular education has successfully separated itself from partisan rhetoric, but runs the risk of restricting itself to youth work alone. Sociology’s critical view of work in non-profit organizations is particularly relevant for an area which is markedly political and where tensions over the status of militant-employee are the subject of heated discussions. Political science’s approach to the most recent references to popular education made in France shows the emergence of a new, yet blurry, definition of popular education as the political education of adults. Lastly, we analyze the foreign influences in these dialogs. In conclusion, we suggest that this research highlights the need for an empirical study of practices related to popular education.