Having written some entries about my experience in the 8° Congress of Sociology, I suppose that it is reasonable to also write something (and post them) on the presentations that I gave during the Congress.
One of them dealt with the quantitative research (and which in fact synthesizes ideas outlined in previous entries). The central idea is that yes it is true that social research is a social process, and that the actors are the researchers (ideas from which it is usually to criticize or to limit the quantitative techniques), then it follows that quantitative research is valid and produces useful information. To some extent, and it radicalizes some ideas (Ibanez for example), because this research works, but while in many readings this acceptance is to show how weak or secondary, quantitative, here is to show its relevance and power.
Which, in the end, says regarding the title of the paper: quantitative research is a social construction, but as when the actors build, they are actually constructing reality, it follows that it produces real information. Yes you will, the paper is taking seriously the fact that the actors build in earnest.
And here’s the link.