Work-life of high-tech professionals in the National Technology Park : a dossier of in-depth interviews

This dossier features 18 interview transcripts with ICT professionals working in or for firms located in the National Technology Park (NTP), Limerick. Conducted by Dr. Anthony D’Andrea (ISSP Research Fellow, Dept. Sociology, UL) over the year 2009 until early 2010, these are semi-structured ethnographic interviews lasting an average of 90 minutes (varying from one to three hours each). Following ethical research protocols, the identity of all interviewees and their firms are protected with the use of pseudonyms. The interviews explore and register three sets of questions: 1) biographical questions about the individual’s background, professional trajectory, basic work function, family and lifestyle; 2) work questions about daily work activities and their integration with new technologies, new forms of employment, mobility, connectivity and networking practices and regimes at local, regional and international levels; 3) institutional questions: firm choices over location, perceptions of quality of services and interaction enabled by regional and national agencies, and socio-economic changes in Ireland, particularly during the “post-Celtic Tiger” years. This dossier provides empirical grounds for research conducted in the project “Nomadic Work/Life in the Knowledge Economy” co-directed by Dr. Breda Gray and Dr. Luigina Ciolfi, respectively from the Departments of Sociology and Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick. The project was sponsored by the Irish Social Science Platform, funded under the HEA Irish Government PTLI4 (Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions) and EU Regional Development.