Interpreting Patterns of Public Service Utilization in Rural Areas

Public service provision in rural areas is an important focus of research in geography and in related disciplines, but studies to date have been hampered by the paucity of theory on public service utilization. This paper synthesizes existing theory within a conceptual framework and evaluates its major components using a Canadian data set. The case study substantiates elements of both aggregate and behavioral conceptualizations. However, a fuller understanding of revealed relationships is forthcoming only when the two conceptualizations and the links between them (especially “action space”) are considered together. In addition, the results underline the importance of discriminating between critical and non-critical services and between use of service and use of facility.