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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.

Projects

Char.gy Residential Wireless Charging Demonstrator

PhD Studentship - Exploring UK energy futures: implications, opportunities and risks

OLEV/Innovate UK Feasibility Study Bid

Publications

Book

Artificial Intelligence and the City: Urbanistic Perspectives on AI (2024)

Book Chapter

Exploring temporal pleats and folds: the role of urban AI and robotics in reinvigorating the cyborg city (2024)

Introducing AI into urban studies (2024)

Toward an intelligent mobility regime (2023)

Exploring the epistemic politics of urban niche experiments (2019)

Journal Article

The Rise of AI Urbanism in Post-Smart Cities: A Critical Commentary on Urban Artificial Intelligence (2024)

Investigating Digitally Inflected Intercity Cycle Commuting (2024)

Why does urban Artificial Intelligence (AI) matter for urban studies? Developing research directions in urban AI research (2024)

Reinventing public transport: rising to the transition challenge (2024)

Examining the spatialities of artificial intelligence and robotics in transitions to more sustainable urban mobilities (2024)

Humans, robots and artificial intelligences reconfiguring urban life in a crisis (2023)

Urban Planning and the Knowledge Politics of the Smart City (2023)

Curating smart cities (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)

Is it who you are or what you do? Insights for Mobility as a Service from research on a car club (2021)

Exploring smart city atmospheres: The case of Milton Keynes (2021)

Urban Planning and the Smart City: Projects, Practices and Politics (2020)

Smoothing peaks and troughs: Intermediary practices to promote demand side response in smart grids (2019)

The imagined electric vehicle user: Insights from pioneering and prospective buyers in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom (2019)

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)

Smart Cities: Towards a New Citizenship Regime? A Discourse Analysis of the British Smart City Standard (2017)

Consuming use orientated product service systems: A consumer culture theory perspective (2017)

Product Service Systems Users and Harley Davidson Riders: the importance of consumer identity in the diffusion of sustainable consumption solutions (2017)

Cycling through Dark Space: Apprehending the Landscape Otherwise (2017)

Governing effective and legitimate smart grid developments (2016)

Sustainable innovation journeys: exploring the dynamics of firm practices as part of transitions to more sustainable food and farming (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)

Retrofitting homes for energy efficiency: an integrated approach to innovation in the low carbon overhaul of social housing (2012)

Receptivity to the production of product service systems in the UK construction and manufacturing sectors: a comparative analysis (2012)

Financial appraisal of wet mesophilic AD technology as a renewable energy and waste management technology (2011)

Exploring the potential of product service systems to achieve household waste prevention on new housing developments in the UK (2010)

The contested concept of sustainable aviation (2009)

Application of an ecosystem function framework to perceptions of community woodlands (2009)

Towards a contemporary approach for understanding consumer behaviour in the context of domestic energy use (2007)

The adoption of domestic solar power systems: do consumers assess product attributes in a stepwise process? (2007)

Toward a sociology of reuse: deconstructing the milkbottle (2007)

Service orientated product innovation for improved environmental performance: an exploratory case study of the air conditioning and cooling sector (2006)

Producer responsibility, waste minimisation and the WEEE Directive: case studies in eco-design from the European lighting sector (2006)

Transfer and application of product service systems: from academia to UK manufacturing firms (2006)

Report

Achieving Household Waste Prevention Through Product Service Systems, Technical Report 1: Developing an Analytical Framework (2008)

Achieving Household Waste Prevention Through Product Service Systems, Technical Report 6: Developing Performance Indicators (2008)

Achieving Household Waste Prevention Through Product Service Systems, Technical Report 3: Environmental and Waste Prevention assessment (2008)

Achieving Household Waste Prevention Through Product Service Systems, Technical Report 2: Developing Experimental Product Service Systems (2008)

Achieving Household Waste Prevention Through Product Service Systems, Technical Report 4: Social and Economic Assessment (2008)

Achieving Household Waste Prevention Through Product Service Systems, Technical Report 5: Institutional and Policy Review (2008)

Achieving Household Waste Prevention Through Product Service Systems, Technical Report 7: Prospective Case Studies (2008)

Achieving Household Waste Prevention Through Product Service Systems (2008)