This article uses Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory to conduct a relational analysis of the expansion of academia. Drawing on three case studies from the fields of research (open data), higher education (academization of vocational education), and knowledge transfer (real-world labs), we examine the dynamic interactions between the scientific field and its social environment. Our investigation shows that scientific expansion processes can take very different forms depending on social context. We observe contested incorporations, intrusions, and bridgings that feed back into academia as the hybridization of higher education, infrastructuring of research, and recoding of knowledge. Based on these empirical findings, we propose a relational research heuristic that should enable a better understanding of the multifaceted expansion of science in the future. © The Author(s) 2025.
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