Preface -- Chapter 1: Unlikely Rebels -- Itinerant Experts -- The Unraveling of Permanent Employment -- The Legal Context of Contingent Work -- Estimating the Size of the Contingent Workforce -- Making Sense of Contingent Work -- The Study -- Organization of the Book -- Part I: Setting the Stage -- Chapter 2: Clients -- Why Do Clients Hire Contractors? -- How Do Clients Hire Contractors? -- Conclusion -- Chapter 3: Contractors -- Why Do Contractors Become Contractors? -- What Kinds of Contractors Are There? -- The Roles Contractors Play for Clients -- Conclusion -- Chapter 4: Agencies -- Sales Culture and Technical Culture -- What Types of Staffing Agencies Are There? -- Conclusion -- Part II: Life in the Market -- Chapter 5: The Information Game: Finding Deals -- What Contractors Do -- What Clients Do -- What Staffing Agencies Do -- Conclusion -- Chapter 6: Making the Deal -- Hiring Manager Evaluations -- Negotiating the Terms of Employment -- Closing Deals -- Conclusion -- Part III: Life on the Job -- Chapter 7: Contractors as Commodities -- Maintaining a Task Orientation -- Delegating Management Responsibilities -- Creating Outsiders -- Conclusion -- Chapter 8: Contractors as Experts -- Integration: Creating Team Members -- Dependence -- Conclusion -- Chapter 9: Navigating between Respect and Resentment -- Tales of Respect -- Tales of Resentment -- Forming an Identity -- Part IV: Living the Cycle -- Chapter 10: Temporal Capital -- The Temporal Patterns of Contracting -- The Rhetoric and Reality of Flexibility -- Chapter 11: Building and Maintaining Human Capital -- The Danger of Obsolescence -- The Risks of Learning -- Strategies for Remaining Current -- Conclusion -- Chapter 12: Building and Maintaining Social Capital -- Reach -- Reputation and Occupational Circles -- Reciprocity and Referral Cliques -- Networking: Building and Maintaining Networks -- Chapter 13: Itinerant Professionals in a Knowledge Economy -- Itinerant Experts: The Contracting Life -- The Ambiguities of Self-Reliance -- Itinerant Experts and the Social Order -- The Occupational Dimension -- Supporting Itinerant Professionalism -- Epilogue -- References -- Appendix: Cast of Characters -- Index