Social Risks of Man's Being in the Modern Urbanized Environment of the Peripheral and Semi-Peripheral Countries of the World System

Accelerated urbanization as the main tendency of social development of humankind in the conditions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is analyzed. The article considers both the problem of financial capital concentration, technological innovation, expansion of consumer markets in the urban environment of post-industrial society and the risks of spontaneous population migration, the concentration of a significant number of the unemployed in cities and, as a result, the expansion of urban slum areas, increase in income polarization between the significant part of the urban population and the small group of owners of robotic and digitalized productions. The trend for the growth of urban slums in recent decades is associated not only with insufficient investment in housing and infrastructure funds. It is positioned as a direct consequence of the uneven economic and social development of both different development regions of one country and uneven development of the world regions. In the situation of intensified urbanization processes associated with accelerated robotization and digitalization of almost all production and service areas, the risks of an even greater concentration of the population in cities are growing amid the growing shortage of jobs for people. As a result of deeper globalization processes, the risks of breaking traditional economic ties between urban agglomerations and rural areas surrounding them are even greater. A direct consequence of these processes would be a massive migration of the population to cities. It is argued that the latest wave of urbanization and concentration of the population in large cities and metropolitan areas would exacerbate the problem of accessible housing for the vast majority of the population. To prevent the emergence of slums or their expansion, national governments and municipal authorities should stimulate the construction of affordable housing and the establishment of acceptable rental conditions. Besides, the concentration of a significant number of people in large cities actualizes the need to expand the public transport network and its likely transfer to a free of charge basis. The authors associate maintaining social stability and mitigating the risks of a significant increase in unemployment and poverty as a result of robotization and digitalization of production with the transformation of service workers into a "new middle class", the development and introduction of progressive taxation mechanisms for robotic and automated productions, and the introduction of a single basic income.

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