Curiosity and Serendipity in Qualitative Research

Malin Åkerström

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.09.2.02

Authors

Malin Åkerström Lund University, Sweden

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.09.2.02

Keywords:

Serendipity, Qualitative Methods, Curiosity

Abstract

This presentation argues that we seldom speak of our findings in qualitative research as serendipitous, although we have splendid possibilities to make surprising findings. In order to enhance the chances and sharpen our analyses we have to read broadly but also pay attention to details in our data. We should avoid societal or scholarly conventionality, even be disobedient to recommendations, if this blinds us to new meanings of our findings. The value of serendipitous findings lies in the fact that they diverge from conventionally held knowledge. Thus, we have to retain our curiosity, with the “strange intoxication” or passion that Ma XWeber wrote about in Science as Vocation.

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Author Biography

Malin Åkerström, Lund University, Sweden

Malin Åkerström is a Professor of Sociology at Lund University in Sweden. Her research focuses on ethnographic studies of deviance and social control. She has published several books, including Betrayal and Betrayers and Crooks and Squares, and articles such as: “Slaps, Punches, Pinches – But not Violence: Boundary Work in Nursing Homes for Elderly” (in Symbolic Interaction), “Doing Ambivalence: Embracing Policy Innovation – At Arm’s Length” (Social Problems), and “Balancing Contradictory Identities ‒ Performing Masculinity in Victim Narratives” (Åkerström, Burcar, and Wästerfors), Sociological Perspective.

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