Includes bibliographical references (p. [143]-147) and index.

Contingent faculty today : who we are. Corporatization : higher education in the service of capital ; A few statistics ; Good work but a bad living ; How our class position has changed ; Other big losers : students and society -- Contingent faculty organizing. Material conditions and power relations ; Consciousness : how our colleagues think ; Our full-time tenured and tenure track colleagues ; Administrators' perspectives and vulnerabilities ; Who are the activists ; The message : respect ; Specific demands ; Competitive unionism : good, bad, or indifferent for contingent faculty ; The politics of lists ; Appointment to union staff : promotion or demotion and for whom? ; Reverse engineering a good union : participant action research ; Guide for a national strategy -- The Chicago experience. Map of the Metro Chicago workforce ; Organizers' voices ; Lessons from interviews -- A metro organizing strategy. Research ; A contingent faculty center : virtual and actual ; Services ; Assistance for organizing ; Regional publicity ; Direct demands and advocacy ; Alliances, coalitions, and solidarity ; Alternatives in sponsorship and organizational structure -- Getting down to work : an organizer's toolbox. Even two make a committee ; Building a committee : finding people and developing issues ; Building relationships : taking care of each other ; Acting like a union ; Dealing with divisions ; Communications : from office whispers to the Internet ; Analyzing the opposition : power, politics, and strategic planning ; Some institutional advantages we have ; We are not alone : finding allies.