The article proposes the concept of structure of disposition as a theoretical alternative to the traditional marxist concepts of relations of production, possession and separation. It is argued that the effect of possession is not to exclude other subjects from all potential and operational disposition but rather to give one of the conditions in which attempts at disposition by any subject would have to take place. Potential and operational disposition are the consequences of a whole variety of particular conditions of disposition. To attempt to impose specific relations of disposition is always to confront specific conditions of action. The conceptual perspective of the disposition structure opens up the possibility of specifying social relations in such a way as to undermine the privileged or separate place which has been assigned to certain social relations or so called levels, i.e. the economic. The rest of the article uses the proposed conceptual framework to interpret the changes over time of the labour systems on an Andean estate under the impact of shifting conjunctures. The aim is to furnish a framework of intelligibility of disposition relations through a case-study approach.