Relations in the Workplace Power Hierarchy

In the literature on the concept of work, there is a contradiction between definitions that take their point of departure from a number of activities per se versus from any activity performed within specific social relations. In the first case, ‘work activities tend to be seen as historical constants and as applicable to every member of a given society.’ In the second case, ‘an activity that is work during a given historical period, or in connection with a specific social category, can be non-work during another period or in connection with another social category’ (Karlsson, 2004: 93). The same observations can be made concerning the literature on resistance. There is a contradiction between regarding resistance as a number of activities per se or as the activities that are performed within certain social relationships. In the first case, the activities are resistance whenever, wherever and within whatever social relations they occur. In the second case, an activity that is resistance in a specific social context can be something else in another; it all depends on the social relations involved. When one wishes to analyse resistance, one can, in the first case, immediately look for the specified activities; in the second case, one first has to find the specified social relations.