ABSTRACT
Companies with large market shares, like Amazon and Starbucks, make it difficult for small businesses in the same sectors to compete. This chapter looks at a key cultural element how people narratively frame the situation of faculty labor conditions. Typical discourses discounting exploitation assume that contingent faculty members hold primary jobs from which they presumably derive a sense of professional identity, stable wages, and essential benefits; therefore, they should not be reliant on their contingent employment for these professional features. In this frame, part-time contingent teaching is voluntary and flexible employment, intended to supplement another vocation in a meaningful way. This frame then goes on to describe how contingent faculty members do not receive the same respect given to their tenure-track colleagues. Overall, the plight of contingent faculty, although unique in many features, is not wholly dissimilar to challenges faced by many professionals in industries increasingly using a more flexible workforce.
