On the basis of a three-year study of the role of popular education in local development processes in Sweden (2006-2008), this paper sets out to outline the role of popular education as a development actor in rural and urban contexts. Two different scenarios and approaches are discussed. One is the role of popular education in rural areas, which is interlinked with the village movement, dominated by bottom-up approaches and strongly linked to voluntary work carried out by local inhabitants themselves. Another scenario is the role of popular education in urban areas, which is dominated by top-down approaches in which popular education has taken on the role of implementing and running projects funded by the government and public sector, "for" local inhabitants. Our findings on the role of popular education in local development processes in urban and rural areas are discussed in relation to theories on community development and community identity, and to a theoretical model that illustrates the different ways in which popular education relates to local communities. (Contains 2 notes.)