Editorial: The geography and governance of infrastructure provision

Abstract

Infrastructure matters for regional development as well as for the individual wellbeing of people. This not only became painstakingly obvious since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020. Thus, the phases of ‘lock-down’ during the pandemic became an eye opener for the condition of infrastructural fundaments of our cities and regions. Debates about systemic infrastructure for maintaining the functioning of our societies and economies – in scientific terms ‘Services of General Interest’ or the ‘Foundational Economy’ – received wide societal and political attention since the outbreak of the pandemic. Yet, already before the outbreak of this most severe global health crisis, discourses in applied social sciences have experienced an ‘infrastructural turn’, putting technical, social and green infrastructures into the centre of attention of social research, theory building and dissemination. This has led to different understandings of ‘infrastructure’ coexisting in academic and professional debates today. This introductory paper to the issue on ‘The Geography and Governance of Infrastructure Provision’ aims at giving an overview of current debates about infrastructure provision in Regional Science and Planning while introducing the six papers included in this theme issue of Europa XXI.