A social marketer, a geographer, and an engineer walk into a bar: Reflections on energy + Illawarra and undertaking interdisciplinary projects Available to Purchase

Dr Ross Gordon is an Associate Professor in Marketing at Macquarie University in Sydney. Ross is currently a Visiting Research Fellow in Social Marketing at The Open University, a Visiting Academic at London School of Economics and Political Science, an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Wollongong Faculty of Social Sciences, and a Member of the Centre for Health Initiatives at the University of Wollongong. He is also the President of the Australian Association of Social Marketing (AASM). His expertise lies in social marketing, consumer cultures and critical marketing teaching and research. He has been a principal or named investigator on projects attracting over US$6.5m in research funds in Australia, UK, Europe and India. He has extensive experience managing and conducting research using mixed methodologies including longitudinal quantitative surveys, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, focus groups, depth interviews, observation research, ethnography, content analysis and experimental studies. He has published over 70 academic journals, book chapters and conference papers including in outlets such as European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Marketing Theory, Journal of Services Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Social Marketing, Energy Policy and BMC Public Health; and has delivered numerous client reports and invited speaking engagements. He also co-authored a leading textbook on social marketing and social change: French and Gordon(2015). Strategic Social Marketing. London: Sage. Ross is a keen player and follower of sports including football, tennis and cycling, loves travelling, enjoys current affairs and is a big music fan and occasional techno DJ.

Gordon Waitt is a Professor in Geography, Department of Geography and Sustainable Communities, University of Wollongong, Australia. Inequality is the connecting thread of Gordon Waitt’s research. To do so, he draws on a range of qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews, home-insights, sound diaries and video-methods. His current work develops this interest in inequality through three strands. Each strand addresses urgent sustainability challenges around the topics of household sustainability, fuel poverty and urban revitalisation. Key questions informing his current research include: How can low income households reduce their energy bills, and at the same time improve their quality of life? Who is doing the work of household sustainability? How can we make regional city centre more lively places?

Prof Paul Cooper is the Director of the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre at the University of Wollongong. Over the past 30 years, he has focused teaching and research efforts on the improvement of the efficiency with which we use energy and other resources, particularly in the built environment and in industrial processes. Paul has been involved in research on a wide variety of topics in energy systems, energy efficiency and fluid mechanics. Paul is passionate about contributing to a rapid transition to a society that has a dramatically lower impact on our environment than at present.