SISTEMAS Y ANALISIS


Contents
Introduction
Data Collection as an end in itself
Establishing the parameters of a system
Establishing benchmark data
Data Collection as part of broader strategy
Propaganda
Belief justification
Market research
Decision support
'Objective' research
The conduct of research
Introduction
How often have you heard someone say 'the fact is…' or 'the facts speak forthemselves'? We have an almost religious belief in the importance of facts as immutable, independent, objective pieces of information that tell us something 'real' about the world around us.
Our fascination with 'facts' is persistent and universal. They seem to offer continual reassurance: whatever the foibles of human opinion, some things at least are beyond argument. We all know that up is up,left is left, and the sun rises in the east.
The people who are most consumed by the search for facts - at least in the popular view - are scientists. To most people, science is about the search for 'truth' - which is largely equated with the accumulation of data. This magical material can be organised into useful pieces (facts) from which laws can be constructed. As the aim of science (so theargument goes) is to find the 'laws of nature', everything the scientist measures is data, and every piece of data is potentially important. In its extreme form, this approach sees science as the process of collecting (and sifting, organising and summarising) masses of data. In this scenario data have particular and special significance.
The problem with this view is that it is almost totally wrong.It is true that some scientists collect data (usually resulting from experiments) but many never handle data in the conventional sense. Few, if any, scientists see the accumulation of data as worthwhile in its own right. Most scientists know that data are only useful in the right context; data out of context are at best unhelpful, at worst misleading. Good scientists in particular have an instinctfor knowing which data are useful and relevant, and which are not.
Nor does science progress (if indeed science can be said to progress) by the mere accumulation of facts. The popular image of the scientist has not caught up with modern thinking about how science is conducted. Society's conception of scientific method is quite different from that accepted as appropriate (and preferable) by thosewho study the process of science. In their analysis there is a right way to do science and a wrong way - and the science of popular conception is the wrong way. When you understand the distinction between these approaches, you will see more clearly what role data play in these methods.
Of course, scientists in the traditional fields (physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy and so on) are not theonly people who collect data. The modern world - complex, industrialised, bureaucratic - thrives on data of all kinds. We are numbered, analysed and surveyed throughout our lives, and the results are stored and analysed. We have in some senses become a part of the statistics that largely define modern society.
But who actually collects data? All governments do, for reasons both laudable andquestionable. Without up-to-date and comprehensive data about the characteristics of the population no government can plan and build the facilities and resources we have come to expect. Commercial organisations collect data to improve their economic prospects by offering the goods or services that potential customers seem to want. Researchers collect data to further their understanding of the workingsof our social and economic systems. Physical scientists collect data to further their understanding of how the world functions.
The process of collecting data takes two forms: gathering data that already been collected by someone else (probably for a different purpose), and creating 'new' data. The latter is a matter of some philosophic importance, and we will also return to it shortly.
Data...