FabLabs are an experimental space for digital design and manufacturing that has democratized access to technology, reducing its cost and facilitating its execution for anyone interested in materializing an idea into a tangible object.
From a theoretical standpoint, FabLabs and makers have been portrayed as the herald of a newly entrepreneurial and globally distributed phase of capitalism, but also as its opposite: a sustainable, grassroots anti-capitalist response to globalism, rooted in the local but networked across the world. Looking at FabLabs and makers through the glass of a practitioner, we can see that, while there exists a sense of community which leads to the membership or applicant model, the lab also acts as an incubator, allowing for business models to be created on its behalf.
Regardless of the underlying reason to join a FabLab or a maker movement, what is out of any doubt is its ability to contribute with knowledge acquisition and innovation at an individual level. How this knowledge will be used depends both on individual factors of the maker and on the contextual factors in which he/she is immersed.
With this call for tracks we aim at contributing, but not limited, to the following topics:

• Positioning differences between FabLabs and maker movement, in terms of marketing and/or managerial perspectives.
• Analysis of the cognitive traits that drive the individuals towards FabLab and/or maker communities.
• Relevance of individual’s education on joining and succeeding in FabLab and/or maker communities.
• Shedding light on the contextual factors that appear to be more conducive towards successful FabLab and/or maker initiatives.
• Dependence on private and public funding for long-term operation of FabLabs and/or maker communities.
• FabLabs and makers as private-public alliances towards sustainable development.
• Business model proposals driving economic feasibility of FabLabs and/or maker communities.
• FabLabs and makers in pandemic and in post-pandemic times: challenges and drivers.

David Hidalgo Carvajal, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Ruth Carrasco Gallego, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Maria Luisa Martinez Muneta, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Gustavo Morales Alonso, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain