Contingent Work

Interesting and diverse.

-- Judith Stein * The Journal of American History *

A quick and accessible read for policymakers and students alike. Its challenge to contemporary liberal thinking about poor women's work makes it a provokative text for courses in public welfare policy, women's labor history, and recent feminism, as well as a needed reminder to activists for social justice.

-- Anne Brophy, Georgia State University * Labor History *

An informative, insightful, and multidimensioned view.

-- Juliet F. Brudney * Boston Globe *

Barker and Christensen's well-organized, interesting and useful book takes us on a tour of the downside of changing employment relations. This book is a compelling introduction to the human issues of the downside of contingent employment. It is written at a level that should be accessible and interesting to most undergraduate students.

-- Ted Baker * American Sociological Review *

The authors argue that growing numbers of contingent workers have permanently altered labor relations and the so-called employment contract, with employers coming to regard workers as 'disposable' and employees abandoning notions of organizational loyalty.

* Booklist *

This volume... offers a many-faceted look at the work and the workers at the lower end of the contingent work continuum.... Readers of this volume will gain increased appreciation for how most contingent employment arrangements benefit the firms much more than the contingent workers they employ in usually undesirable jobs. This informative book examines an important labor market phenomenon and will appeal to all students of the labor market regardless of discipline.

* Choi