THE WORLD OF WORK OF BROKERS

Abstract

The basic intention of this academic exercise is implicit in its title. At one level, we may find it syntactically awkward if we vocalize it. Yet, when glancing at it on the written page, there seems to suggest a 'visual conceit underlying its structure. Some would see "the world of work" as salient, while others the "work of brokers". Yet both perceptions are inextricably linked. Our apprehension of work in our everyday life is similar. On one hand, there is a social structure, the world that provides the matrix in which work operates; on the other is the specific context of the work that externalizes the values of the social structure. Both are mutually re-enforcing. Cognisance of this socially constructed reality must therefore include both processes. The work of the futures brokers cannot exist without some structural imperatives conditioning it. They are identified as being emanated from a capitalist mode of production. It is precisely capitalism that defines the work world of the brokers as one of alienation, exploitation, materialism and greed. Yet, by actualizing the above properties, it paradoxically helps to perpetuate this logic of capitalism, that is it reproduces the capitalistic ethic by its activities. These mutually re-enforcing process however do not connote immutability. There is hope that we can ameliorate these deleterious effects of capitalism. But first we must need to apprehend its logic. This academic exercise therefore tries to illuminate some of the processes at work. It does not propose to prescribe a solution but only to facilitate the understanding of it via the world of work of brokers. The search for a solution is thus left to the readers.