Duncan McLaren is currently a freelance consultant and researcher, and part-time PhD student at Lancaster University. He is an author of several books and many reports, most recently ‘Sharing Cities: A case for truly smart and sustainable cities’ (with Julian Agyeman, MIT Press: 2015). Previously he worked for many years in environmental research and advocacy, most recently as Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland from 2003 until 2011, when he moved to Sweden to spend more time with his children.