jQuery serialize / serializeArray from an element that is not a form

I haven't found a concrete answer as to whether this is possible, but it seems like it should be...

I would like to serialize all the input elements contained in a div. I can't use a form, because it would be nested within another form. I would then get the values and post them via ajax.

Here is the jsFiddle example I am playing with:

http://jsfiddle.net/9uyz5/

If I change the root to a it works as expected.

Thanks for your help.

I've modified the jsfiddle from this other question:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/1186309/25020