Emergent Theory and/as Doctoral Research

In this chapter we provide a conceptual context for this last section of the book, as well as an overview of the chapters contained in it. In particular we discuss the key concept of emergence, as what we see as a distinctive feature of more recent kinds of doctoral research. This is research that is increasingly marked by its engagement with new and emergent theory, on the one hand, and also, on the other hand, by its own emergent character—its movement toward understanding, and relatedly, its heightened awareness of writing as a practice. In such work, research is writing, moving towards its own articulation and hence more often than not it constitutes a form of discovery in its own right. This presents particular challenges for doctoral researchers and their supervisors, but in our view opens up the field considerably.