ABSTRACT
The paper discusses the claim that action research (and other varieties of 'alternative social research') is in need of an alternative methodology because it deals with phenomena different to those that 'traditional-empirical methodology' was developed for. To begin with, 'validation', as an example of an important research activity, is analysed; no profound differences in the concrete ways in which the supposedly antagonistic paradigms ascribe validity are found. In the next section it is argued that new findings and developments in natural sciences have altered the image of its subject in such a way that it is necessary to revise 'traditional-empirical methodology'. Eventually, some possible features of one alternative methodology for both the fields of 'traditional-empirical' and 'alternative research' are proposed.
