2024 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"

Through our practice, we got mainly four points highlighted as lessons learned. First, as most of the stories we built around community life topics, it can be deduced that participants look for a sharing-oriented city life. Second, participants have knowledge and training demands about producing from waste, which shows that there can be high interest in these topics in the maker space. Third, younger generations want to get involved in dynamic activities which also involve older people and their life experiences. Finally, as it can be understood from the activities , since the citizens have just learned the term "maker", it is needed to support awareness and knowledge about this field so that citizens can be more involved.

At the same time, we have reached almost 50.000 people through the upcycling activities we carried out in this maker space. Also with this practice, we have provided support for the dissemination of zero waste practices and the implementation of the circular economy transition process in cities with a participatory management approach by informing the citizens.

• Common maker spaces operated by local or central governments can have noticeable support for the entrepreneurial ecosystem and contribute significantly to the circular economy transition process in cities.
• Expanding common maker space is very important for the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in cities.
• In the commercialization processes of startups, local governments have a very important role in providing user experience and support in terms of dissemination.
• It is very important to include all representative groups in cities in implementation practices in terms of fair management and inclusiveness.

• https://cevre.ibb.istanbul/atik-yonetimi-mudurlugu-sube-mudurlugu/dongusel-isler-atolyesi/ (External link)