Allen-Collinson, J (2004) Occupational identity on the edge: social science contract researchers in higher education, Sociology, 38 (2): 313-329.

<p>Throughout the higher education sector in the UK, recent decades have witnessed the increasing use of fixed-term and part-time labour, to the extent that around 50% of academic staff are currently employed on fixed-term contracts and in excess of 90% of researchers are employed on fixed-term contracts. Despite the importance of their contribution to the sector as a whole, relatively little research has been undertaken on the lived experience of undertaking contract research. The objective of this paper is therefore to explore the reality and complexities of contract researchers’ working lives and the occupational identities and self-images which contract researchers construct and maintain.