Att förbättra ekonomisk historia. Vetenskapstraditioner och utvärderingsmetoder i 2000-talets forskningspolitik.

Sammanfattning: This thesis analyzes the struggle of the last decade to improve the quality of Swedish science and how the methods towards this goal can be understood from different scientific traditions. By studying the latest research proposals by the Swedish government it shows a development towards viewing all the sciences as natural sciences in certain aspects. It argues that the notion of scientific peers being the same for the natural sciences and the human sciences is a problematic assumption, when it comes to evaluating the human sciences through certain quantitative methods. It further argues that whether or not this assumption is true for a certain discipline is essential for the adequacy of these evaluation methods. It also tries to make a first assessment of whether or not the discipline of Swedish economic history is indeed suitable for this kind of evaluation.