SOCIAL RISKS: FACTORS AND CONSEQUENCES

Abstract

The article is aimed at revealing the social risks that arise in society, encompass all aspects of life, and go beyond the oversight of social institutions that ensure safety in society. The authors argue that social risks in Ukraine have certain country-specific features, and that they have emerged and become widespread due to problems accumulated during a long transformational period. In the face of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the level of uncertainty has increased, and problems in the socio-economic sphere of the country have worsened. Put together, these factors led to changes in the lives of a large part of the population and increased the intensity of the manifestation of social risks. An analysis of the current situation in Ukraine shows that risks in the labor, demographic, and educational sectors, as well as risks related to the availability and quality of medical services, are of particular concern. The features of the manifestation of contemporary risks are the deterioration of the demographic situation, the decrease in the possibilities of reproduction of human capital, the disruption of balances in the labor market, the decline in the well-being of the population, the deterioration of the financial condition of social benefit funds and the heavy load on them. Social risks increase the probability of negative changes, the danger of the dysfunction of social institutions, the inhibition of social reproduction processes, the transmission of social norms and values, production processes, and are likely to lead to social instability and tension. The dynamism, instability, and unpredictability of socio-economic changes and their irreversibility give way to the emergence of new social risks. Accordingly, focusing on priorities and specific ways to minimize social risks is one of the most pressing and urgent tasks of our time, the solution of which requires the development and application of effective mechanisms that will ensure an adequate response to social risks in the system of ensuring the economic security of the state.