Uppsatsen tar sin övergripande utgångspunkt i vår förståelse för teorier inom militärteorin. Det föreligger flera utmaningar vid tolkning av teorier. Exempel på detta kan utgöras av författarens och betraktarens förförståelse, språkliga eller vetenskapsteoretiska perspektiv. Därmed kan också följdfel uppstå i doktriner och riktlinjer.  I det specifika utgör J.F.C Fuller och Martin van Creveld teorier om fighting power empiri när de anlyseras genom en metateoretisk ram bestående av förståelse – förklara och uppifrån – nedifrån kompletterad med en analys avseende krigföringsnivå. Syftet med uppsatsen är att skapa en större förståelse för begreppet fighting power genom att analysera den vetenskapsteoretiska utgångspunkten hos Fuller och Creveld. Vidare syftar uppsatsen till att skapa förståelse för att fighting power inte kan betraktas isolerat utan som del av ett större sammanhang. Uppsatsen resultat visar hur Fuller och Creveld har olika utgångspunkt när de skapade sina teorier. Fullers teori utgår från ett förklaringsinriktat uppifrånperspektiv och Crevelds från ett förståelseinriktat nedifrånperspektiv. Vidare visar uppsatsen hur båda teorierna främst omfattar den taktiska nivån trots skillnaderna i deras framställning. Uppsatsen påvisar också vikten av de olika förhållningssätten för att kunna förstå fighting power i ett sammanhang för att därmed kunna omsätta detta i doktrinära eller taktiska riktlinjer. Avslutningsvis diskuteras giltigheten i den svenska beskrivningen av krigföringsförmåga (pelarmodellen) utan att betrakta det i ett större sammanhang.

The concept of doctrine has existed for over a century and is still up for debate and research. A confusion about the meaning and the use of doctrine as a concept was identified. Several different definitions of the concept have been observed and some of them presents that doctrine is a belief system, institutionalized beliefs, principles how to fight or an instruction this has therefore created a conceptual confusion.   By examining the three foremost doctrinal researchers who examine the concept of doctrine in the modern time, the aim of the essay is to through Gerring's conceptual theory Good Concepts increase the understanding and meaning of the concept in the present and see which definition is the most sustainable. The result of the study showed that one of the perspectives on doctrine increased the definition and the meaning of it. This perspective is clearly described and well defined. It does also give the concept different tools to form a doctrine for special actions and uses. Gerring’s theory as a model contributed with a wider understanding and presented the most sustainable of the concept. The outcome also shows disputations around the concept and contributes to increased existing research debate.

This thesis discusses and analyses the existence of two different perspectives, a social and a technical one, in Library and Information Science (LIS). Most of the time the division between these perspectives seems to result in research only using either of them. This can be a problem when studying complex phenomena. We therefore see a need for a metatheory that unites the social and the technical. By presenting and analysing all doctoral dissertations published at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS) 1993-2005, we try to detect and critically discuss the dichotomy between the two perspectives. The analysis of the dissertations is done with an Actor-network theory (ANT) perspective. The outcome is that most of the dissertations are written using either a social or a technical perspective, though not all of them. As a way out of the division between the social and the technical, we discuss the possibilities for ANT as a new metatheory for LIS. A few examples of international ANT writings in LIS are also presented briefly to show the possibilities of that metatheory. / Uppsatsnivå: D

The focus of this thesis is to investigate how gender related concepts have used in practice from Simone De Beauvoir’s “The second sex”, to Judith Butler’s “Bodies that matters”. The other texts used are “the traffic in women” by Gayle Rubin, “Gender: an ethnomethodological approach” by Suzanne Kessler and Wendy McKenna and “Gender and power” by Robert Connell. In my theoretical part I use the idea that categories are human inventions, that no categories including those important to the gender issue are more correct than any other and that the usefulness of categories can only be measured by the usefulness of the theories attached to them. I am also inspired by the theory of critical realism that claims that research must focus on the internal mechanisms that causes the effects that we are observing. The method used is an adaptation of philosophical conceptual analysis where I have analyzed how gender related concepts such as “men” and “women” are used in my empirical material. The focus was to create an understanding of how gender categories where used in the texts that I where analyzing. There is also a metatheoretical approach where the empirical material is used in order to get an understanding on how to create new theories. The conclusions of this thesis is that the theoretical concept of gender has developed from a description of how social forces affected people in the category “women” different from those in the category “men” to a more and more intricate philosophical and theoretical discussion of how to understand and analyze this difference. The second conclusion is that all the authors of my material are struggling with how the relation between the sexed\gendered bodies and the social characteristics of men and women should be explained. This leads to a number of problematic conclusions that I claim can be solved by not using specific theories about gender but instead focusing on general social theories based on causality and internal relations that explains the phenomena that are studied.

From an academic perspective, the discipline of war studies is still underdeveloped. There is a lack of metatheoretical research compared to other social science research, despite the fact that it faces the same ontological and epistemological challenges as other sciences. Furthermore, a lack of understanding different phenomena diminishes precision in language and thus also the ability to stand on the shoulders of giants and contribute to the common body of knowledge. The aim of this study was to contribute to an increased understanding of the phenomenon of sea power in war studies. Hence, this study, based on Hulterström & Widén's philosophical and metatheoretical theory on combat, sought to answer the following questions: (1) How can different views on the phenomenon of sea power in the field of naval theory be categorized? (2) How can different perspectives of the phenomenon of sea power in the field of naval theory be understood? Firstly, the results of the study show that different views on the phenomenon of sea power can be categorized using the three perspectives: Brian Crisher & Mark Souva's view of sea power as a physical perspective, Geoffrey Till’s as a social perspective and Jacob Børresen’s as a human-centered perspective. Secondly, the results of this study show that sea power, like combat, changes character and significance depending on the perspective of a theorist. On the basis of these results, one conclusion is that Hulterström & Widén’s theory is fruitful for the analysis and categorization of phenomena other than combat. Additionally, by conceptualizing different perspectives, the author’s modified analysis tool can be seen as new way to approach the phenomenon of sea power.

A possible "discursive turn" is believed to have been observed within Swedish political science in later years. The purpose of this study is to examine whether or not such a turn has actually taken place, in order to further determine if a resulting theoretical homogeneity poses a risk to the ability of Swedish political science to identify and respond to its full width of possible research problems, and to determine its perspectives on both these problems and the results that are later communicated to the general society. To do so, the study poses the following primary research question: "Has a discursive turn occurred within Swedish political science?" This question is then broken down into two specified research questions. "Has discourse analysis become a more common approach for doctoral dissertations in political science during the period of 2000-2013?" "Have ideas corresponding with discourse theory become more common within doctoral dissertations in political science that are not pure discourse analyses during the period of 2000-2013?" These questions are then answered by examining all known 406 doctoral dissertations in political science published in Sweden during the 21st century up until (and including) the year of 2013, using two forms of content analysis, one manual and one computer-assisted. The study finds no clear evidence of a discursive turn in Swedish political science since the turn of the century. The results demonstrate, however, that while ideas corresponding with discourse theory do not appear to have become unambiguously more common in recent times, they do appear in some form in a majority of the examined dissertations, albeit most often on the margin. The study finds no significant indications of a theoretical homogenisation that might impede upon the ability of political science to identify and respond to its full width of research problems. Discourse analysis appears to have a stable presence within Swedish political science, but does not appear to risk contributing to a homogenous research climate that might damage the plurality of research. Instead, it might be seen as a contribution to this plurality.

The writings of Yuk Hui, bringing together technical and philosophical insights, provides new theory for the digital, something desired by many in archival research. The aim of this study is to assess the use of Hui’s theories on digital objects and web ontologies as a unifying theory for archival studies, looking at the concept of digital records in particular. Two types of ontology are needed in order to understand digital objects according to Hui: (1) ontologies which relates to the technical language and hierarchies of knowledge representation, like metadata; (2) Ontology, which is the question of Being in the tradition of Heidegger’s phenomenology, the understanding of what it is to be in the world. Both of these ontologies are needed to account for the nature of the digital object. Further, digital objects are produced and constituted through their relations, which can be divided into discursive (technical and logical) and existential (the understanding of being in the world) relations. Digital objects must be approached both as technical formal entities, and as beings in the world. The first register is common, the second – more existential approach – is rarely applied. Using a metatheoretical and hermeneutic method, different conceptions of digital records are discussed, in order to find commonalities and possibilities in relation to Hui’s theory. The digital record as: a process of becoming, information as affordance, context, temporality and evidence are all related to and structured through the application of Hui’s perspective.   The thesis ends with the contribution of a possible redefinition of digital records: A digital record is constituted and concretised as material by discursive and existential relations, that taken together function as a persistent representation. Further, Hui’s digital object theory is suggested as a structuring and unifying theory. In relation to digital records Hui’s theory on digital objects can function as a metatheoretical measure, and a method of critical reading. / Yuk Hui för samman tekniska och filosofiska perspektiv och erbjuder ny teori för det digitala, något som ofta efterfrågas inom arkivvetenskapen. Syftet med denna studie är att applicera Huis teori om digitala objekt och webontologier som en förenande teori för arkivstudier, specifikt i förhållandet till konceptet digitala records. Två typer av ontologi behövs för att förstå digitala objekt enligt Hui: (1) ontologier som relaterar till tekniskt språk och hierarkiska kunskapsrepresentationer, så som metadata; (2) Ontologi som frågan om varat i fenomenologen Martin Heideggers bemärkelse; förståelsen av vad det är att vara i världen. Båda dessa ontologier behövs för att redogöra för det digitala objektets natur. Vidare produceras och konstitueras digitala objekt genom sina relationer, som kan delas upp i diskursiva (tekniska och logiska) och existentiella (förståelsen av att vara i världen) relationer. Digitala objekt måste förstås både som tekniska formella entiteter och som varelser i världen. Det första perspektivet är vanligt förekommande medan det andra – mer existentiella förhållningssättet – sällan tillämpas. Med hjälp av en metateoretisk och hermeneutisk metod diskuteras olika föreställningar om digitala records för att hitta likheter och möjligheter i relation till Huis teori. Digitala records som: en process av tillblivande, information som affordance, kontext, temporalitet och bevis är koncept som relateras och struktureras genom tillämpningen av Huis perspektiv.   Uppsatsen bidrar med en möjlig omdefinition av digitala records: Ett digitalt record konstitueras och konkretiseras som materiellt genom diskursiva och existentiella relationer vilka, tillsammans, fungerar som en ihållande representation. Vidare framhålls Huis teori för digitala objekt som en strukturerande och förenande teori. I relation till digitala records kan Huis teori om digitala objekt fungera som ett metatoretiskt mått och en metod för kritisk läsning.