
Prf Matthew Cook
Professor Of Innovation
School of Engineering & Innovation
Biography
Professional biography
Prior to academic life, Matthew worked for 11 years as a professional spatial planner specialising in urban regeneration and sustainability. He returned to university in 1999 as Research Assistant on a UK Government funded project and completed a doctorate in Innovation and Sustainability. Following an appointment as Lecturer at Cranfield University in 2003, Matthew joined the Open University in 2009 where he is now Professor of Innovation and leads the Future Urban Environments research team and Technology and Innovation Management qualification.
Research interests
Matthew's research interests are in innovation and the development of more sustainable urban environments. Working at the intersection of innovation studies and urban studies his work recognises the situatedness of innovation and the inherent spatiality of this complex socio-technical process. Much of his current work is concerned with critical perspectives on the governance of smart city innovations, such as urban energy and transport systems, and the policy mobilities that play a profound role in their (re)construction.
Matthew uses a variety of qualitative research methods including longitudinal case study, ethnography and discourse analysis. He has secured funding for research from several sources including the Economic and Social Research Council, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, European Union and various firms from the private sector.
Teaching interests
Matthew's teaching interests are in innovation and urban development. He is Qualification Lead for Technology and Innovation Management and Presentation Team Chair of the post graduate module T849 Strategic Capabilities for Technological Innovation. He is also lead author of a new block concerned with cities and sustainability which will form part of the revised module U116 Environment: Journeys Through a Changing World.
External collaborations
Matthew has developed a number of effective external collaborations with public and private sector organisations including Milton Keynes Council, CGI, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, British Standards Institute, Western Power Distribution.
International links
Matthew has strong international links with universities in Northern Europe. He has worked on complex system approaches to urban planning with Drs Ward Rauws and Terry van Dijk from Groningen University, The Netherlands. He has a strong relationship around teaching and research projects focused on product service systems in cities with Professor Tim McAloone, Danish Technical University, Denmark.
Finally, he has developed an effective and enduring collaboration on sustainability and innovation in both cities and the food and farming sector with the Swedish Life Sciences University, Uppsala, Sweden, where he is now August T Larsson Visiting Scholar.
Publications
Book
Artificial Intelligence and the City: Urbanistic Perspectives on AI (2024)
Book Chapter
Introducing AI into urban studies (2024)
Toward an intelligent mobility regime (2023)
Exploring the epistemic politics of urban niche experiments (2019)
Journal Article
Investigating Digitally Inflected Intercity Cycle Commuting (2024)
Reinventing public transport: rising to the transition challenge (2024)
Humans, robots and artificial intelligences reconfiguring urban life in a crisis (2023)
Urban Planning and the Knowledge Politics of the Smart City (2023)
Demand-responsive transport returns to Milton Keynes - lessons for a bus industry in crisis? (2022)
Beyond automobility? Lock-in of past failures in low-carbon urban mobility innovations (2022)
Exploring smart city atmospheres: The case of Milton Keynes (2021)
Urban Planning and the Smart City: Projects, Practices and Politics (2020)
Roadmaps to Utopia: Tales of the Smart City (2018)
Exploring participatory visions of smart transport in Milton Keynes (2018)
Product Service System Innovation in the Smart City (2018)
Prototyping sustainable mobility practices: user-generated data in the smart city (2018)
Consuming use orientated product service systems: A consumer culture theory perspective (2017)
Cycling through Dark Space: Apprehending the Landscape Otherwise (2017)
Governing effective and legitimate smart grid developments (2016)
Fluid transitions to more sustainable product service systems (2014)
How to Make Development Plans Suitable for Volatile Contexts (2014)
Critical Reflections on Designing Product Service Systems (2013)
The contested concept of sustainable aviation (2009)
Application of an ecosystem function framework to perceptions of community woodlands (2009)
Toward a sociology of reuse: deconstructing the milkbottle (2007)
Transfer and application of product service systems: from academia to UK manufacturing firms (2006)
Report
Achieving Household Waste Prevention Through Product Service Systems (2008)