A paper prepared for the 10 th World Congress of Regional Science Association International, 26-30 May 2014, Bangkok, Thailand Determinants and Drivers of the Provision of Services of General Interest ‡ Heinz Fassmann a , Alois Humer a & Daniel Rauhut b Version 15 March, 2014 Abstract Services of General Interest (SGI) is a concept used within EU policy making, and represents services which are provided by society to inhabitants and businesses. As they are considered “universal services” and EU citizens is given right to access them this is not necessarily done via unregulated market channels. In this sense, the SGI concept is similar to the concept of public goods. Key EU policy documents state that SGI form a cornerstone of the European Model of Society and that they play an important role in stimulating regional economic growth. This paper aims to discuss the drivers and determinants of the provision of Services of General Interest on a conceptual basis. The construction of SGI provision and fulfilling of related standards is designed by two sides: organiser/provider side and demand/user side. What can be considered as a minimum provision of SGI is subject to the ideological preferences and moral values of the decisive actors/designers. In a comprehensive view, external systems of demography and territory are determining the context, while the systems of policy, society and economy are actively driving the SGI provision. All five surrounding systems entail spatial-temporal characteristics that give the design of SGI provision ‘specific conditions’ and impact on the standards of availability, affordability, accessibility, quality and variety of SGI. JEL codes: I31, O18, P11 Keywords: Services of General Interest, Quality of life, Regional development, Infrastructure, Social Welfare 1. Introduction This paper elaborates the conceptual basis of the SGI provision and the framework in which it takes place. In a first step, the dual design of SGI provision is presented. Standards of provision are negotiated between both, providers and users. This setting is relativized according to space and time components in a second step and it is argued that pre-conditions of territories and time courses affect the dual design of SGI provision. In a third step, the SGI provision itself is affected by five drivers which either determine SGI provision from external or which directly ‡ This paper is an off-spring of a finalised project, which was financed by the ESPON applied research project 2013/1/16 Indicators and Perspectives for Services of General Interest in Territorial Cohesion and Development as part of Activity 1 (Definitions and concepts) and Activity 5 (typologies). The content of this paper does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the ESPON Monitoring Committee. a University of Vienna, Department of Geography and Regional Research, Universitätsstrasse 7/5 (NIG), A-1010 Vienna, Austria. b University West, Dept. of Social and Behavioural Studies, 486 61 Trollhättan, Sweden. 1