Resumo

PLATA CAVIEDES, Juan Camilo. Qualitative and Quantitative Research: A Review of the Why and the How to Gain Knowledge About the Social. univ.humanist. [online]. 2007, n.64, pp. 215-226. ISSN 0120-4807.

The main source of difficulties we find in social sciences to accumulate knowledge comes from fusioning the question of what to research with the question of how to solve research questions. It is argued that the escape from this trap is only possible when the phenomenon under study is located in its spatial and temporal context. Using comparison it is feasible to identify what is common between a variety of situations and its study with methods such that the difference between qualitative and qualitative is irrelevant. Through this frame, the task of knowledge accumulation about the social world will become clearer.

Palavras-chave : research; methodology; comparative history; networks; narratives; Social history; Social research; Social sciences; methodology.