Evaluation of city councils youth assemblies within the scope of right to the city: The case of Eskişehir

Cities are seen as areas where people maintain social, cultural and economic relations and continue to develop according to their own unique living standards. With the development of cities, the rights demanded have started to increase. Right to the city are the rights that people need to live in a decent way at the urban level. The protection of right to the city is primarily the responsibility of municipalities, private-public institutions and organizations, and individuals. However, city councils appear here as an important protector of right to the city. The city councils established through the" Local Agenda 21" process are the local mechanisms of the city that aim to protect the rights and laws, strengthen participation and citizen awareness at the local level. Therefore, in this study, city councils have been evaluated in terms of right to the city. In this study, which uses the qualitative research method, the data were obtained from a semi-structured survey applied to the members of the Youth Assembly of the City Council of Eskişehir province. Thus, along with the level of knowledge and awareness of the members of the youth assembly who were surveyed about right to the city it was discussed whether the city councils were able to realize their organizational goals in the direction of the city. These data were evaluated by descriptive statistical analysis method and visualized by means of figures. Subsequently, within the scope of the research findings, strategic goals and policy proposals were made to city council managers, decision makers in local governments and future researchers for the development of the right to the city at the local level.