Using a search path for templates?

For several parts of my views I have generic partials. In some cases I, however, I need to use more specific partials. Generally, I handle this through configuration in the controllers where this applies. For this I assign the paths of the default partials to instance variables in the ApplicationController. When I need more specific partials, I re-assign the instance variable with their path in a concrete controller.

This approach works, but I'd like to have it more comfy and DRYer. What I want is a way to put the generic partials into /app/views/default and have them used unless there are more specific partials in /app/views/somethings.

Michael