Serendipity Science - An Emerging Field and its Methods

This volume brings together for the first time the diverse threads within the growing field of serendipity research, to reflect both on the origins of this emerging field within different disciplines as well as its increasing influence as its own field with foundational texts and emerging practices.  The phenomenon of serendipity has been described in many ways since Horace Walpole initially coined the term in 1754 to categorize those discoveries that happen by 'both accidents and sagacity'. This book offers a sampling of perspectives from experts in serendipity research from organizational studies, management theory, information science and library studies, psychology, literature, computer science, social science, ethics, and the history and philosophy of science. Considerations about the importance and role of serendipity are being raised now across science (both empirical and theoretical) as well as practice (from art and innovation to leadership and governance), with ever more eyes looking closer at its significance in human history and the likelihood it will play a key, while unpredictable, role in forming our future. Serendipity Science represents an emerging, and also important and potentially necessary field of study, if we are to deal well as a society with our complex times and uncertain future.


Samantha Copeland is an Assistant Professor in Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at Delft University of Technology. Co-founder and continuing co-chair of the Serendipity Society, Copeland has also recently edited The Art of Serendipity (2022, Palgrave-McMillan) with Ross, and has published in philosophy journals such as Synthese, Perspectives on Philosophy of Science, and in collections on the rationality and epistemology of discoveries made by chance, as well as the impact of contingent environments on the success of potential serendipity. Recent work with the Templeton Foundation has focussed on the relationships between ethics, serendipity and possibility.
Martin Sand is an Assistant Professor of Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at TU Delft. In 2020, he was a member of the NIAS-Lorentz theme group on 'Accountable and Explainable Medical AI' at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. Before, he undertook a two-year project on the topic 'Moral Luck in Science and Innovation' as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie-Fellow. He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice and an editorial board member of the journal Philosophy of Management.

Wendy Ross studies the role of material serendipity in higher cognitive processes such as insight problem solving and creativity. She draws on a range of methods from eye-tracking and experimental psychology to focused cognitive ethnography. She has recently co-edited the collections on serendipity: The Art of Serendipity (Palgrave). She is Co-Chair of the Serendipity Society and Vice President of the Possibility Studies Network. In 2021 she was awarded the Frank X Barron prize by Division 10 of the APA.