Wie Forschung nützlich werden kann

This article starts from the premise that an academic discipline directed at practice has to question, within which terms its research results become useful beyond science. For empirical research, the authors put forward the idea of use-inspired basic research. This approach might be a helpful orientation due to (further) educational science’s double challenge to simultaneously prove academic productivity and practical as well as societal usefulness. By reference to points of decision regularly made in empirical research processes, the article shows how exemplary further educational science / adult education research acts towards these aspirations.