Savaş Zafer Şahin

After graduating from METU (Middle East Technical University) Department of City and Regional Planning, he worked as an urban planner in central and local governments in Turkey. After doing two graduate studies on the relationship between local politics and local governments at The University of Kent in the UK and in METU, he wrote his doctoral thesis on the relationship between urban planning and politics in Ankara. He actively participated in civil society activities and the Chamber of City Planners in Ankara. He works as a full-time academician at Ankara Hacı Bayram Veli University. He made significant contributions to public policy-making processes at the national level and received various awards in international and national competitions in the field of urban planning. He has many academic studies published on urban planning, urban transformation, citizen participation, digitalization, urban infrastructure, and conservation of historical areas. He is a member of the German Network of Spatial Sciences (ARL) and the French Institute for Anatolian Studies (IFEA) and participates in international research projects. He has also contributed to developing citizens’ assemblies in Turkey for the last 10 years. Since 2019, he has served as the Vice President of The Citizens’ Assembly of Ankara. For his contributions to the development of democratic participation in Turkey, he was awarded the “Facilitation Impact Award” in 2020 by the International Association of Facilitators and “Best Practice in Citizen Participation” by the International Observatory on Participatory Democracy (IOPD) in 2021.