The popular discourse on making and makerspaces is laden with optimistic narratives suggesting that makerspaces act as key institutions that support more inclusive and sustainable forms of local economic development. Despite their popularity, we know little about how makerspaces actually support entrepreneurship and innovation and even less about how they advance the goals of environmental sustainability and social inclusion, particularly in the Canadian context. In an effort to redress these gaps, this paper uses a unique database of makerspaces, complemented with findings from in-depth case studies, to examine the practices of makerspaces in southern Ontario (Canada). Our study finds that while makerspaces offer access to technologies and basic skills training, we find limited evidence that makerspaces generate the promised economic or social outcomes so often attributed to them. Moreover, we find very limited evidence that makerspaces actively seek to be socially inclusive in their membership and programming or encourage environmentally sustainable practices. In other words, the potential of makerspaces, in their current form, to contribute to more inclusive and sustainable forms of local economic and community development is not yet fully realized.

关于制造和创客空间的流行话语充满了乐观的叙述，表明创客空间是支持更具包容性和可持续性的地方经济发展形式的关键机构。尽管它们很受欢迎，但我们对创客空间如何真正支持创业和创新知之甚少，更不知道它们如何推进环境可持续性和社会包容的目标，尤其是在加拿大的背景下。为了弥补这些差距，本文使用了一个独特的创客空间数据库，并辅以深入案例研究的发现，以检查安大略省南部（加拿大）的创客空间实践。我们的研究发现，虽然创客空间提供获取技术和基本技能培训的机会，我们发现有限的证据表明创客空间产生了通常归因于他们的承诺的经济或社会成果。此外，我们发现非常有限的证据表明创客空间积极寻求在其会员和计划中具有社会包容性或鼓励环境可持续实践。换句话说，创客空间以目前的形式为当地经济和社区发展的更具包容性和可持续性的形式做出贡献的潜力尚未完全实现。