Contemporary Ethnographic Practice and the Value of Serendipity

Abstract

Ethnographic practice developed within anthropology as a fieldwork method and methodology that values uncertainty and the necessary reflexivity this triggers. However, external contingencies that stress the quantitative aspects of research output increasingly prevent anthropologists from indulging in their traditionally ‘slow science’. Instead, they now have to write and publish quickly to keep their ethnographic account relevant before it becomes obsolete, hereby blurring the line between the anthropological quest and journalistic accounts. This article addresses the value of serendipity in contemporary ethnographic practice and suggests some news ways for up-and-coming anthropologists to think through present and future fieldwork.

Keywords: Serendipity, ethnography, methodology, fieldwork, discovery