Beyond Supply Security: Territorial Service Security for Regional Science in an Age of Compound Shocks

Contemporary regional shocks are no longer experienced primarily as isolated supply interruptions. They are increasingly lived as disruptions to essential services: cooling during heatwaves, mobility during fuel or transit disruptions, digital connectivity during infrastructure failures, and affordable warmth in volatile energy markets. This paper develops the concept of territorial service security, defined as the capacity of places to maintain affordable, reliable, and equitable access to essential services under compound shocks, including cascading disruptions. The framework complements conventional resilience indicators such as employment, output, income, and productivity by examining how economic capacity is translated into effective service access across places. Drawing on research on regional resilience, provisioning systems, services of general interest, and spatial justice, the paper highlights how housing, transport, digital networks, public services, institutions, and spatial inequality mediate the effects of disruption. It then presents an integrative conceptual framework, outlines a comparative research agenda, and identifies place-based policy implications for resilient regional development. The paper argues that the next frontier for regional science is not only to secure inputs, but to redesign territories so that everyday services remain affordable, accessible, flexible, and just under stress.