The main goal of this article consists in suggesting that it is still early to establish a new paradigm in the social and human sciences. The emergence of the qualitative methodological approaches has introduced a new way of viewing social phenomena, which rejects the founding principles of empirical analytical research and, subsequently, their hegemonic set of quality criteria. The attempts to proclaim a new paradigm has not only surfaced the fight for power in the scientific community but also prematurely silenced a productive debate on the inherent assumptions and principles of a field which is in a maturing process and still searching for its own set of quality parameters. In this article, where the Anglo-American and the French experience are intertwined, a conceptual framework for description and analysis is set forth with the intent of improving the understanding of different qualitative research practices. This conceptual framework also acquires the role of fostering the discussion on "quality" in the qualitative research approaches.
