Matthew Cook
Matthew is Senior Lecturer in Design and Innovation at the Open University. He joined the Open University in October 2009 after previously working at Cranfield University as lecturer in Economic Geography and Planning for eight years and in UK local government as a spatial planner and cartographer for 10 years. He is supervising two PhD students in the area of innovation and transformation to sustainable development.
Matthew’s research interests are in design, innovation and transformation to sustainable development. His research focuses on spatiality and power associated with these topics. As such, he draws upon and makes connections between literature of several related fields including science and technology studies (STS), innovation studies, urban studies and spatial planning.
He is currently presentation co-chair of a third level course - T307 Innovation: designing for a sustainable future. He is production chair for the replacement of this course which will be available in early 2014.
Contact Information
Contact Information
Email: matthew.cook@open.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)1908 655964
Fax: +44 (0)1908 654052
Room: N2051, Venables building.
Selected Publications
Cook, M., Potter, S. (2010) Critical Reflections on the Performativity of Transition Frameworks in the Making and Remaking of Places Experienced as Urban, EASST Conference Trento 1st – 4th September, 2010
Lemon, M., Craig, J & Cook, M. (2010) Looking in or Looking Out? Top-down Change and Operational Capability Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/ forum: Qualitative Social research. Accepted, awaiting publication.
Gottberg, A., Longhurst, P., Cook, M. (2010) Exploring the Potential of Product Service Systems to Achieve Household Waste Prevention in the UK. Waste Management and Research, 28: 228-235, Sage
Walker, S., Cook, M. (2009) The Contested Concept of Sustainable Aviation, Sustainable Development, 17(6): 378-390, Wiley.
Faiers, A., Cook, M.B & Neame, C. (2007) Towards a contemporary approach for understanding consumer behaviour in the context of domestic energy use, Energy Policy 35(8): 4381-4390, Elsevier.
Vaughan, P., Cook, M. & Trawick, P. (2007) Toward a sociology of reuse: deconstructing the milkbottle, Sociologia Ruralis 47(2): 120-134, Blackwell.
Cook, M. B., Lemon, M. & Bhamra, T. A. (2006) Transfer and Application of Product Service Systems: From Academia to UK Manufacturing Firms. Journal of Cleaner Production 14(17): 1455-1465, Elsevier.
Gottberg, A., Morris, J., Pollard, S., Mark-Herbert, C. & Cook, M. B. (2006) Producer Responsibility, Waste Minimisation and the WEEE Directive: Case Studies in Eco-design from the European Lighting Sector. Science of the Total Environment 359 (1-3): 38-56, Elsevier.
Cook, M., Maggs, H. Neame, C., Lemon, M. (2006) Service orientated product innovation for improved environmental performance: An exploratory case study of the air conditioning and cooling sector. Environmental Science 3(3): 193-206, Taylor Francis.
Morely, N., Parker, D., Lee, P., Vaughan, P., Longhurst, P., Cook, M. (2007) Product Lightweighting. A strategy to deliver a sustainable economy?, Resource Efficiency Knowledge Transfer Network, ISBN 978-1-906237-00-4.
Current and Recent Research Projects
Innovation and transformations to sustainability in the food sector. This research involves ethnographic research of an environmental innovation journey in a UK based food processing firm. It focuses on the emergence of environmental practices as part of such journeys and the development of a robust conceptual framework to help understand these processes. Research is undertaken with a PhD student jointly supervised with Professor Stephen Potter.
Transitions to sustainable aviation. This research was undertaken as part of a broader UK government funded research project concerned with aviation and sustainable development. It sought to identify contested policy discourses associated with sustainable development and aviation. Details of the resultant publication entitled The Contested Concept of Sustainable Aviation are given above.
Household practices, innovation and sustainable development. The need to understand household practices in the context of sustainable development is increasingly recognised. This project sought to better understand everyday practices associated with the consumption of milk and develop critical insights on this process. Details of the resultant publication entitled Toward a sociology of reuse: deconstructing the milkbottle are given above.
Service Innovation and transformations to sustainable development is a long standing research interest. Projects completed include an EPSRC funded project on Service Orientated Lifecycle Design in UK Manufacturing firms and a UK Government funded project concerned with the development of product service systems to achieve household waste prevention on new UK housing developments. Project reports for the latter can be found at www.randd.gov.uk.
CV
Qualifications
MSc Town and Country Planning (1997)
Reading University
PhD Studies of Innovation for Sustainability (2002)
Cranfield University
PGCert. Learning, Teaching and Assessment in Higher Education (2007)
Cranfield University
Previous Posts
Senior Economic Development Officer
Bedfordshire County Council, UK (1995-1999)
Research Assistant (while completing PhD)
Cranfield University (1999-2002)
Principal Economic Development Officer
Bedford Borough Council (2003)
Lecturer in Economic Geography and Planning
Cranfield University (2004 – 2009)
Lecturer in Design and Innovation
Open University (2009 – present)
Affiliations
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Member of European Association for the study of Science and Technology
Teaching
Matthew is co-chair of T307 – Innovation: designing for a sustainable future, a third level 60pt courses that teaches students about design in the context of innovation and sustainable development. He is production course chair for the replacement of T307 which will build on the success of this course and be available in 2014.
Matthew is also a member of a number of production course teams including U101 Design Thinking, T206 Energy for a Sustainable Future and T211 Design and Designing.
In the past Matthew has developed and delivered modules concerned with design and innovation studies on a number of post graduate programs including Innovation and Design for Sustainability, Environmental Management for Business and Economics for Natural Resource and Environmental Management. Matthew developed the latter of which he was Course Director.
Page Last Updated: 8 October, 2012