La insoportable levedad del dato

One of the ideas proposed in this article is that modernization theory and structural historical analysis can be combined into a single explanatory framework for the purpose of describing the determinants of migratory flows at the point in which they originate. The author also discusses the relevance of data with regard to the propositions forming part of said theory, and illustrates an approximation process between the kind of questions that prompt research and the type of answers offered by the different statistical tools that are utilized. In addition, the author discusses certain current methodological problems such as data-building, levels of analysis, and diachrony- synchrony, not in general terms but rather within the context of this particular research effort. Based on the statements made in the article, it becomes evident that the perfunctory application of any given statistical technique without considering the validity of the assumptions on which it is based nor the type of structure comprising it, generates knowledge which is not valid, and that statistics will produce empirical findings that are meaningless from a theoretical standpoint if due attention is not paid to the necessary relationship between that structure and the set of theoretical relations.