Serendipity plays an important role in qualitative research. The document discusses how serendipity involves both chance and preparedness or insight. It involves three types: temporal serendipity of being in the right place at the right time, serendipity relations that develop from chance encounters, and analytical serendipity of making connections between data and theory. For serendipity to lead to valuable discoveries, researchers must be prepared to recognize opportunities when they occur and incorporate serendipitous findings into their work.

1. Serendipity & the Road to
Theory in Qualitative Research
Jean-Paul C. Grund, PhD
CVO – Addiction Research Centre, Utrecht, NL
&
Department of Addictology, 1st Faculty of Medicine,
Charles University in Prague & General University Hospital
in Prague, CZ
22 | 07 | 2014

2. Definitions of Serendipity
Serendipity is...
...the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable
or agreeable things not sought for. (Merriam Webster)
...the faculty of making happy and unexpected
discoveries by accident. (Oxford English Dictionary)
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

3. Word History of Serendipity
„...serendipity, a very expressive word, which as I
have nothing better to tell you, I shall endeavour to
explain to you: you will understand it better by the
derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy
tale called ‘The Three Princes of Serendip.’
As their highnesses travelled, they were always making
discoveries, by accident and sagacity, of things which they
were not in quest of.
For instance, one of them discovered that a mule blind of
the right eye had travelled the same road lately, because
the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was
worse than on the right – now do you understand
serendipity?“
Horace Walpole January 28, 1754
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

4. Definition Revisited
Serendipity (noun): That quality which, through
good fortune and sagacity*, allows a person to
discover something good while seeking
something else.
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

5. Definition Revisited
* Sagacity (noun): personal alertness, awareness,
and understanding;
Sagacious (adjective): having or showing
understanding and the ability to make good
judgments; wise
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

6. Short name of the whole PPT presentation max. lenght to 1/2 of the page
From Folktale to Scientific Method
7

7. Famous Examples of Serendipity
Archymedes´ Principle
Columbus´ Discovery of America
Newton´s Discovery of Gravity
Fleming´s Discovery of Pennicilin
Galvani´s Discovery of “Animal Electricity”
Bequerel´s Discovery of Radioactivity
Alfred Nobel´s Discovery of Dynamite
Albert Hoffman´s Discovery of LSD
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

8. Serendipity in the Qualitative Process:
Acknowledgement
Serendipitous findings are often not in accord with current
beliefs.
It is not the divine roll of the dice that determines serendipity.
Three Principles Of Serendip: Insight, Chance, And Discovery In
Qualitative Research, by Gary Fein and James Deegan.
Qualitative Studies in Education, Volume 9, Number 4, 1996.
(http://www.ul.ie/~philos/vol2/deegan.html).
XXX Merton
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

9. Serendipity in the Qualitative Process (1)
Serendipity is not merely an unusual happening,
but the scientist is "prepared" to make sense of a
truer picture of the world, creating a more precise
model.
●"Chance favors only those who know how to court her."
(Charles Nicolle);
●In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared
mind." (Louis Pasteur).
Serendipity is the interactive outcome of unique
and contingent "mixes" of insight (Sagacity)
coupled with chance (Accident).
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

10. Serendipity in the Qualitative Process (2)
Serendipity as Controlled Chaos:
"Naturalists in the social sciences are engaged in a strategy
of calculated chaos. They intentionally immerse themselves
in the logging of data regarding subjects that are of
personal concern to them, a process that initially need have
little or no specific social scientific orientation.
The theory of the naturalist is that a direction will emerge,
will be "discovered." (Lofland & Lofland)
But, insight is not a treasure at the end of the road for the
Princes of Serendip; it is one that unfolds with every twist
and turn in the road.
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

11. Serendipity in the Qualitative Process (3)
Focussing on the Opportunities
that Chance Provides.
Conceptualizing Serendipity:
Three Distinct Components
of Research:
Temporal Serendipity
Serendipity Relations
Analytic Serendipity
Each depends on the readiness to seize upon chance events;
that is, the unstructured, inductive quality of fieldwork often
provides leeway to incorporate the power of serendipitous
findings into the core of a research report.
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

12. Serendipity in the Qualitative Process (4)
Temporal Serendipity
The power of "being in the
right place at the right
time."
The observer cannot
choose in advance to
witness an event; his or
her presence is, in part, a
function of the decision
of the observer to judge
"where the action is."
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

13. Serendipity in the Qualitative Process (5)
Serendipity is not only
observing memorable
events, but recognizing these
as significant when they
occur and turning them into
powerful narratives.
The ability to see a pattern
or implication that has gone
unnoticed and, having
exposed it, to find it in other
social settings.
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

14. Serendipity in the Qualitative Process (6)
Serendipity Relations
Ethnography is pre-eminently a methodology that
depends on relationships.
It is not sufficient that one makes contact (good
fortune), but one must also be able to capitalize on
this contact (sagacity).
Key Informants & Community Fieldworkers:
Development of relations based on happenstance,
luck, or mistaken identity.
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

15. Serendipity in the Qualitative Process (7)
Analytical Serendipity
The ability to establish connections between data
and theory.
By what processes does this analytical insight
occur?
● exposure to the relevant literature and being part of a scholarly
world.
● the data themselves speak to the researcher and may provoke an
"Ah-ha!" response.
● Discovery of a dramatic metaphor or narrative strategy that
permits conceptualization and presentation of the problem in a
novel light.
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

16. Serendipity in the Qualitative Process (8)
Keeping one's wits
Part of serendipity derives from those unplanned
happenings that stem from one's own hands.
The powerful role of mistakes leading to insight.
Mistakes may be treated not only as unavoidable
errors, but as events that uncover the
preconceptions and choices of the researcher.
Learning how to learn from mistakes is critical for
using serendipity in qualitative research.
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

17. Short name of the whole PPT presentation max. lenght to 1/2 of the page
The road to Serendip is not an easy path
Bahramdipity: the suppression of a discovery,
sometimes a serendipitous discovery, by the
often-egomaniacal act of a more powerful
individual who does cruelly punish, not merely
disdain, a person (or persons) of lesser power and
little renown who demonstrates sagacity,
perspicacity, and truthfulness (From Bahram of
Persia, as characterized in the fairy tale The Three
Princes of Serendip.)
Toby J. Sommer 'Bahramdipity' and Scientific Research The
Scientist 13[3]:13, Feb. 01, 1999
18

18. Ethnographic findings are not random.
The chance component of research is central to the
collection and interpretation of data.
Serendipity involves planned insight coupled with
unplanned events, core to the philosophy of qualitative
research.
A researcher must be prepared to seize the clues on the
road to discovery.
CONCLUSIONS
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

19. http://www.forbes.com/sites/kare
anderson/2012/09/30/how-to-
succeed-since-success-is-
random-and-savor-life-with-
others/
Enjoy!
Post lecture reading
suggestion
Grund – Serendipity in qualitative research process

20. Thank you for
your attention
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
This presentation reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held
responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

21. Contact
Jean-Paul Grund, PhD
CVO – Addiction Research
Centre, Utrecht, NL
&
Department of Addictology,
1st Faculty of Medicine,
Charles University in Prague &
General University Hospital in
Prague, CZ
E: jpgrund@drugresearch.nl
W3: www.drugresearch.nl