Etymology From ecumenopolis + -ity + -an. First reliably attested in 1974: either, as from Ecumenopolitan, or a generalised use thereof, parallel with the development of ecumenopolis.
1
Of or conducive to the development, befitting the scale, or characteristic of an ecumenopolis or ecumenopoleis.
[…] “ecumenopolitan” formations.1971: The Mastery of Urban Growth: Report of the International Colloquium, Brussels, 2–4 December 1969, page 47 (Mens en ruimte, M. plus R international)
Certainly the magnitude of megalopolitan or ecumenopolitan problems tends to overwhelm the individual who is a perspective participant.1974, Spenser W. Havlick, The Urban Organism: The City’s Natural Resources from an Environmental Perspective, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 476, →ISBN:
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‘The ecumenopolitan concept’, said Professor Dix of Nottingham, apparently proposing the ‘dilution’ motion, ‘implies the better use of resources, perhaps a greater use of telecommunications and electronics, and properly planned transport systems. It means a better and more readily accessible countryside…’.1976, “The Planner”, in Royal Town Planning Institute, volume 62, page 25:
In many, many areas on megalopolitan government, the next time a meeting of this sort gets together and begins to think basically, they are going to be talking about ecumenopolitan government and people are going to be saying: “Ecumenopolis, who needs it? Ecumenopolis, it doesn’t exist and never will.”1976, Leman Group Inc, Great Lakes Megalopolis: From Civilization to Ecumenization, Ministry of State, Urban Affairs, Canada, →ISBN, page 97, →ISBN:
The very largest concentrations in the entire complex will have to be rescued from simply more sprawl, because suburbanization and exurbanization continue to bring added pressures on the core. The best way to do this, Doxiadis thought, is to engineer the establishment of new metropolitan areas at only a moderate distance away as nodes in a hierarchical pattern suitable to the ecumenopolitan phase of human history. Then, in an oracular manner looking even beyond the “world-spanning city,” Doxiadis saw mankind of the future even moving in the direction of an extraterrestrial Cosmopolis, “the city of the Cosmos.”⁵⁶1979, Albert N. Cousins, Hans Nagpaul, Urban Life: The Sociology of Cities and Urban Society, Wiley, →ISBN, page 587, →ISBN:
While this is the scale which, for many, is still difficult to perceive or accept, there are a number of signs that such ecumenopolitan systems are very much in the making.¹⁰ The two world wars are but consequences of frictions arising between two or three near-global spatial/operational arrangements dating back to fifteenth and sixteenth century concepts and to the systems which such concepts spurred.1980, International Journal for Housing Science and Its Applications, volume 4, Pergamon, page vi:
ecumenopolitan
noun
Etymology From ecumenopolis + -ity + -an. First reliably attested in 1974: either, as from Ecumenopolitan, or a generalised use thereof, parallel with the development of ecumenopolis.
1
An inhabitant of an ecumenopolis, especially one actively involved in its political arena.
The danger of this pattern is of course that the ecumenopolitan becomes spread very thin among various roles and locations. As a citizen of the world we see more of the whole picture but become frustrated in trying to find where the need is greatest so we can “plug in.”1974, Spenser W. Havlick, The Urban Organism: The City’s Natural Resources from an Environmental Perspective, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 475, →ISBN:
⁽¹⁾ A large share of the ecumenopolitans may not take the trouble to operate their own vehicles. ⁽²⁾ The automata and the ecumenopolitans are inherently symbiotic, but the new breed will be specialists who are virtually bionic.1987: J. F. Brotchie, Peter Geoffrey Hall, and Peter Wesley Newton [eds.], The Spatial Impact of Technological Change, pages 419⁽¹⁾ and 420⁽²⁾ (Croom Helm; →ISBN, 9780709950066)
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Table 1 The ecumenopolitans: the world-serving roles1991, J. F. Brotchie, editor, Cities of the 21st Century: New Technologies and Spatial Systems, Longman Cheshire, →ISBN, page 379, →ISBN:
In 1962 Yona Friedman predicted that the entire world population would be agglomerated into 1000 big cities.⁵ Also in the early 1960s Constantinos A. Doxiadis envisaged an “ecumenopolis”⁶ consisting of groups of major cities linked to each other (by air traffic and electronic communications) more firmly than to the surrounding districts of the countries in which they are located. A global elite, crossing national boundaries daily, would be the ultimate form of civilization. According to metabolist theory set out by Kisho Kurokawa in 1967, each of these cities would be a “metapolis,” an urban unit for ecumenopolitans built in “super-architecture”: “A Metapolis will be a junction point of mobile information. It will also be the place from which directives are issued.”⁷ Singapore is the apotheosis of Metabolism.1997, Nan Ellin, Architecture of Fear, Princeton Architectural Press, →ISBN, page 228:
Etymology Adjectival sense first attested in 1969; nominal sense in 1977: Ecumenopolis + -itan, formed on the pattern of megalopolitan, necropolitan.
1
Of or characteristic of the Ecumenopolis.
Planners and urban designers would, then, be able to conceive a clear and strong image of the Earth’s future urban patterns, with each city (hopefully) keeping its own visible identity and having its own open lands, water bodies, and recreational areas all around. Such an image, if properly invented, advocated, accepted by political leaders, and loved by the people, cannot but create the magnetism, enthusiasm, and power that will help us implement it in the decades ahead, thus avoiding the Ecumenopolitan horror of combined complete congestion and sprawl that Doxiadis would have our grandchildren and great-grandchildren inhabit!1969: American Institute of Planners, Journal of the American Institute of Planners, volume 35, page 202 (The Institute)
At a centre-point of a conurbation containing all but a fraction of mankind, and this at twice or three times mankind’s present numbers, the pressure of human activity on the unimaginable Ecumenopolitan centre-point would be as enormous as the water-pressure of the Ocean on the Ocean’s bottom at the points at which the Ocean is at its deepest.1970, Arnold Joseph Toynbee, Cities on the Move, Oxford University Press, page 244:
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In relative space, everyone who wants to participate in the Ecumenopolitan system will have access to do so through the communications and transportation systems we shall have at our command.1971, Ronald Abler, John S. Adams, Peter Gould, Spatial Organization: The Geographer’s View of the World, Prentice-Hall, page 570:
If so, then portions of the Ecumenopolitan population would be voluntarily reducing their numbers so as to approach more closely an ideal human race — the logical extension of the quality versus quantity argument.1973: Richard L. Meier (?), Design of Resource-Conserving Cities, part 1, page 482? (Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California)
⁽¹⁾ […] think to a great extent in Ecumenopolitan terms — our situation makes it imperative — and many of the ideas ekisticians have evolved may be useful. ⁽²⁾ For instance, Solerian arcologies could be interlinked in a modified Ecumenopolitan network and informed with sound ekistic concepts of energy flow and personal space.1977: Michael L. Johnson, Holistic Technology, pages 58⁽¹⁾ and 65⁽²⁾ (Libra Publishers)
Doxiadis may have seen the Ecumenopolitan picture emerging with particular force as he studied the Great Lakes Megalopolis in the 1960’s. It is a less dense, yet less congested and certainly less resented concentration than the original Megalopolis on the Boston–New York–Washington axis. A similar schema could be proposed of a trans-european megalopolitan belt crossing the continent from the Mediterranean to the North Sea and the Irish Sea as urbanization proceeds along the Saône–Rhône and Rhine Valleys and penetrates the valleys of the Alps. We could visualize an «urbanized isthmus» from Rome (or Naples?) and Venice in the south to Amsterdam and Hamburg, jumping even over the Straits of Dover to include most of England. Such a formation may call for a new term, such as megistopolis.1978: Jean Gottmann, How Large Can Cities Grow?, page 10 (Livraria Almedina)
Ecumenopolitan
noun
Etymology Adjectival sense first attested in 1969; nominal sense in 1977: Ecumenopolis + -itan, formed on the pattern of megalopolitan, necropolitan.
1
Rare An inhabitant of the Ecumenopolis, especially during its inchoate phase.
When such cities are formed ‘Ecumenopolitans’, crossing national boundaries daily, would establish the ultimate form of civilization on the earth. [¶] Born from existing cities and the individual places in which citizenship is established, each city will be a ‘metapolis’, an urban unit for Ecumenopolitans built in a super-architecture. A ‘metapolis’ will be a junction point of mobile information.1977: Kishō Kurokawa, Metabolism in Architecture, page 69 (Studio Vista)
Meanwhile, Ecumenopolitans would have the advantages of 100 per cent literacy […]1984, American Water Works Association, Journal, volume 58, self-published, page 31: