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Urbanization 2.0

As technology races ahead of us, it is difficult to anticipate what the future holds. One thing we do know is that the future will be shaped by two key trends: digitization and urbanization – and that the possibilities introduced by the former will likely help us overcome the problems associated with the latter.

CHICAGO – We are now in the final days of the industrial age. Just as the second generation of steam engines propelled the Industrial Revolution forward, so, too, are new technologies advancing today’s digital revolution. But as technology races ahead of us, it is difficult to anticipate what the future holds.

One thing we do know is that the future will be shaped by two key trends: digitization and urbanization. And the possibilities introduced by the former will likely help us overcome the problems associated with the latter.

When the Industrial Revolution was first gaining momentum at the beginning of the nineteenth century, only a small percentage of the global population lived in cities. The world was still predominantly rural and agricultural, as it had been for thousands of years. But as industrialization accelerated, so did urbanization, as impoverished farmworkers flocked to factories.

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