Working In Wisconsin

The nature of work relations, relations of power between groups in the workforce, is not easy to grasp in its full complexity. The complexity arises not least from the fact that work relations (like all social relations) embody both the material and the ideological. They are revealed in the division of labor and resources between sexes, ethnicities, races, social status and religious practice. But they are also in ideas and representations that are ascribed to people of different abilities, attitudes, desires, personality traits, behavior patterns, and so on. Work relations are both constituted by and help constitute these practices and ideologies, in interaction with other structures of social hierarchy. Neither uniform across societies nor historically static, they may be seen as largely socially constructed. The process of this social construction, however, is inadequately understood.
Social conflict has been the history of the human condition. The harsh economic realities of labor and capital are structurally tied together like two cats over a clothes line. Internally, capital and labor have conflict on the results that should be accomplished. Whether we were created or adapted over millions of years, our biological and ideological reactions have been instinctual. Instinct provides a response to external stimuli, which moves us to action, unless overridden by intelligence, which is creative and more versatile.
Are we again going to see effects of the rule of passion over reason?