Book Review: Power Despite Precarity by Joe Berry and Helena Worthen

During the past few decades, the job of college professor has become increasingly contingent and precarious. While the term “professor” generally evokes the image of a tenured professional with lifetime job security, contingent faculty–who include among their ranks both part-time and full-time college instructors working off the tenure track–now make up over three-quarters of all college faculty. 

In Power Despite Precarity: Strategies for the Contingent Faculty Movement in Higher Education, activists Joe Berry and Helena Worthen explain the process through which this state of affairs came to be, tracing universities’ increasing reliance on contingent faculty to the rise of neo-liberal management philosophies that entail running educational institutions “like a business” (78). Contingent faculty allow university administrators greater flexibility in operating a university budget, since they are far easier to hire and fire than their tenured colleagues.

The problem, from the perspective of those of us who serve in contingent faculty roles, is that the lack of job security inherent in a contingent faculty position often makes establishing a sustainable career in education difficult. In many disciplines–particularly humanities disciplines such as English and history–opportunities for tenure-track employment have rapidly dried up, a state of affairs exemplified in 2019 by Columbia University’s inability to place a single English PhD student in a tenure-track job.

All hope is not lost, however, as contingent faculty are fighting back, organizing labor unions–including both contingent-only and “combined” units–to take back the power that has fallen from their grasp during this neoliberal era. This movement forms the primary topic of Berry and Worthen’s book, which provides an account that ranges from a broad history of the contingent labor movement, to a more localized story of adjuncts’ organizing successes in the California State University system (in which the authors were personally involved), to discussion of strategies and concerns relevant to any contingent faculty member looking to get started organizing their workplace or becoming more involved in an existing union.

The wide-ranging nature of the book can give it a sort of “grab-bag” feel, with different sections of the book varying greatly in terms of content. However, all of the material is held together by a motivating commitment to the cause of education justice, as well as an organizing philosophy–explored in sections of the book that detail the authors’ “blue sky” goals for the contingent movement–which holds that contingency ought to be ended, with all college faculty enjoying the job security that goes along with tenure.

In fact, the book’s greatest strength lies in the connections it draws between large-scale changes that have occurred in the university system over time and the smaller-scale organizing strategies that have led to successful organizing in the California system and beyond. The authors recount personal stories–both their own and others’–that led them become involved in union organizing, providing vivid examples of the steps necessary for building a successful movement. Berry and Worthen also do not shy away from acknowledging failures in organizing–times when campaigns were unable to achieve their objectives, or when coalitions of contingent faculty broke down, for reasons both personal and political.

Part III–titled “What We Want and What the CFA [Congress of Faculty Associations] Got”–is particularly useful. In this section, the authors outline a set of long-term goals for the contingent faculty movement and then explore how these goals informed–and were often compromised by–the process of negotiating a contract for California system faculty, a process that the authors refer to as “sausage-making” for its tedious, but necessary, nature. While the CFA (the bargaining unit for California system faculty) did not achieve all of its goals in contract negotiation (as almost no union will), it was able to establish a salary scale that guarantees both a livable wage and seniority to contingent faculty. The CFA was also able to negotiate a system for job security that–while not strictly a tenure system–affords contingent faculty with many of the same job protections as their tenure-track counterparts.

These contractual provisions provide valuable models for contingent faculty at all stages of the organizing process, whether they are just getting started organizing their workplaces, or approaching the bargaining table. Berry and Worthen provide valuable insights that will be appreciated by any contingent faculty member–whether part-time or full-time–looking for greater understanding of their role in the labor movement, as well as by tenure-track faculty who wish to better understand how they can help their contingent colleagues.

Link to the book: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745345529/power-despite-precarity/