In this article I address two interrelated questions. The first question is, what role do external PhD. candidates play in the emergence of paradigms? The second question is, if anything, what do external PhD. candidates actually contribute to the process of emerging paradigms? In order to answer these questions, I conducted an exploratory study into the vicissitudes of external PhD. candidates in the Netherlands. As my findings suggest, they display a fully-fledged academic habitus. Their main concern is the complexity of the professional practices they work in, which they want to understand and innovate. This complexity refuses standardized methods. Therefore, external PhD. candidates turn to bricolage. Although they bring rich empirical data and innovative methods into the academy, they encounter difficulties addressing the academic public. They seldom feel welcome as academics and are critical about the socio-cultural elements of academic practice. In general, their impact on emerging paradigms is low. This does not mean that this impact is worthless. On the contrary, the contributions of external PhD. candidates deserves appreciation in the light of valorisation. Moreover, bricolage reflects the more general late-modern trend of de-standardized biographies. This goes for non-academics and academics alike. Can external PhD. candidates pioneer in the development of a late-modern habitus?
Basten (2011). Bricolage and the late modern academic habitus of external PhD. candidates. In First International Conference on Emerging Paradigms in Business and Social Studies, Dubai, November 22-24, 2011 (won “best paper award”).
