Alastair is secretary of the boi charity and co-founder of its residential school, Living Freedom, which allows 18- to 25-year-olds to explore the meaning and ideals of freedom in the twenty-first century. For the Academy of Ideas he coordinates planning and programming across projects including Battle of Ideas Festival and Battle of Ideas Europe. He is an experienced cultural programmer having worked in the UK and internationally to develop festivals, exhibitions and curated programmes. Alastair is a founding member of mantownhuman, which published Manifesto: towards a new humanism in architecture(2008) which featured in Penguin Classics 100 Artists’ Manifestos. He is co-editor of The Lure of the City: from slums to suburbs (2011) and The Future of Community: reports of a death greatly exaggerated (2008).