This dissertation expands current theoretical and practical knowledge of variability in the technological strategies practiced by past forager societies. Specifically, it examines the interplay between raw material innate and working properties, and tool design as they relate to skeletal media and technologies. Data were synthesized from existing biomedical literature on the structure and mechanical properties of technologically-relevant osseous media, including bird and cetacean bone, and antler. Original laboratory tests were then conducted to determine the mechanical properties of Young's modulus (intrinsic stiffness), intrinsic strength, and fracture resistance of the compact tissue of reindeer antler, cervid long bones, and the limb bones of the California sea lion. Cervid compact limb tissue is stiff, strong, and brittle, while reindeer antler is flexible and highly fracture-resistant (tough). Air-drying hardens all skeletal tissues, and greatly increases investment times for creating tool blanks of both antler and cervid limb bone. Water -soaking can soften dry antler, but may have little effect on the workability of previously-dried land mammal limb bone. Finally, data on the mechanical and working properties of osseous tissues were applied to an analysis of the raw material selection and tool design strategies practiced by protohistoric Alutiiq foragers of Alaska's Kodiak region. Drawing on a sample of over 300 osseous tools and tool blanks, the engineering designs of five tool types were investigated: unbarbed arrows, barbed sea mammal harpoons, fishing harpoon tips, woodworking wedges, and awls. By employing multiple analytical scales, the study points to multiple design pathways toward a generalized goal of maximizing tool longevity, or circulation time. Tool fracture potential can be reduced through raw material selection and stress-reducing structural design. Alutiiq designs for longevity include nested fish harpoon valves, and the off-set line holes on unilaterally barbed harpoons. Also, both tool types were created most frequently from tough but non-local antler. Tool recycling and conservation to avoid drying and fracture can likewise increase tool use-lives. For osseous tools, maximizing longevity might offset high initial tool production investments. The results are applicable to processes of technology transfer in many protohistoric contexts and the Upper Paleolithic of Eurasia.

The cruel nature of war gives reason for its study. A crucial component of this research aims to uncover the reasons behind victory and defeat. Winning, after all, is the central attraction of organized violence. Unfortunately, political science efforts in this direction have been rare, and the few theories on offer (numerical preponderance, technology theory, and proficiency) are infrequently tested against the empirical record. This dissertation therefore not only subjected the main theories of battlefield victory to a systematic test against the historical record, but also did so with a dataset more comprehensive and with greater chronological breadth than any other in the political science literature. The range of battles included runs from Megiddo (1469 BC) to Wanat (2008). Such a historically ambitious undertaking is unfortunately fraught with a series of methodological concerns. However, fears regarding the reliability of these historical statistics are best allayed by the assortment of historiographical techniques that have been used to eliminate the more dubious estimations. Concerns regarding data validity are similarly met with a clear delineation of methodological scope: current data is both western-centric and fails to speak to combat in pre-agrarian settings; the conclusions drawn below therefore keep a recognition of these limitations in mind. Ultimately, the chief findings of this study are that neither Napoleon’s ‘big battalions’ nor armies boasting technological supremacy over their rivals are assured any guarantee of battlefield success. This result is a powerful blow to both mainstream realist theory (whose power calculations rely on raw aggregations like army size) and Western defence planners (who have predicated their strategies on the belief that technology is the chief underpinning of victory). That being said, the most compelling causal explanation for battlefield victory, combat proficiency, appears subject to a crucial caveat: even the most talented armies can be ground into dust. This finding will provide little comfort to gifted armies that find themselves involved in a costly and prolonged campaign, such as Canada and America in Afghanistan. Lastly, this project’s contribution should be seen as not only theoretical and practical in nature, but also as providing a methodological toolkit and empirical resource of use to anyone subsequently interested in tracing the evolution of organized violence over time. In short, this project is summation of how political science thinks about the most basic aspect of war: battle. As the findings of this dissertation suggest, what is distinctly troublesome is that our existing theories and assumptions about who wins and why appear to bear little resemblance to reality. If anything, this dissertation calls attention to the urgent need for further research into the matter of battle victory.

Digital teknik har blivit en stor del av våra liv och har lett till omfattande förändringar på alla nivåer i samhället. Sverige är ett av världens mest utvecklade länder inom digital teknik och vi ser att det har haft sin inverkan på människors dagliga arbetsliv, vilket också inkluderar lärare inom skolan på alla nivåer. Huvudsyftet med studien är att undersöka hur svenska högskolelärare inom informatik upplever sin användning av digital teknik som de omges av på sin arbetsplats, vilket inbegriper hur de påverkar och påverkas av den digitala teknik som de använder. En kvalitativ forskningsansats användes för att svara på studiens fråga och metoden bestod av enskilda semistrukturerade intervjuer. I studien framgick det att svenska högskolelärare inom informatik kan uppleva sin användning av digital teknik som både besvärlig och bra. I de flesta fall kan de inte påverka den digitala tekniken i någon större utsträckning när det gäller dess utformning eller inköp, då system som administrationssystem och lärplattform införs via offentliga upphandlingar utan deras delaktighet. Det förekommer en tro om att högskolans digitalisering i framtiden kommer innebära att det underlättar deras administrativa arbete, men det råder ingen fullständig konsensus om att den digitala tekniken redan nu underlättar det på ett optimalt sätt. / Digital technology has become a big part of our lives and has led to extensive changes at all levels of society. With Sweden being one of the world's most technology evolved countries we see that technology has even set its roots within people's daily working lives, which also includes schoolteachers on all levels. The main purpose of the study is to investigate how Swedish university teachers in informatics experience their use with digital technology of which they are surrounded by at their workplace, which includes how they affect and are affected by the digital technology they use. A qualitative research approach was used to answer the study's question and the method consisted of individual semi-structured interviews. In the study, it emerged that Swedish university teachers in informatics experience their use of digital technology as both negative and positive. In most cases, they cannot influence the digital technology to any great extent in terms of its design or purchase, as systems such as administration systems and learning management platforms are introduced through public procurement without their participation. There is a belief that the university's digitization in the future will mean that it facilitates their administrative work, but there is no complete consensus that digital technology already facilitates it in an optimal way.