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标题：Ecumenopolis in Asia
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作者：Peter Nas
期刊名称：International Institute for Asian Studies Annual Report
出版年度：2003
期号：31
出版社：International Institute for Asian Studies
摘要：It is estimated that in 2000 about 50 per cent of the worldpopulation was living in cities and that this percentage isconstantly increasing. This figure applies not only to almostcompletely urbanized Western countries, where even farm-ing is completely mechanized, industrialized, and market-driven, but also to Latin America and particularly to Asia andAfrica. Their levels of urbanization may yet be substantiallylower but these regions nowadays contain the world's largestcities, the magnitude of which completely ridicules earlierscientific debates on the optimum size of cities. Notwith-standing the great difficulties that can be envisaged in cre-ating a sustainable Ecumenopolis that honours human needswhile respecting environmental capacity, I am convinced thatthis Ecumenopolis is positive in principle. The city figuresprominently among great human inventions, such as the useof fire, the invention of the wheel, and the use of steam andelectric energy in industry. Generally speaking, by means ofhigh levels of population density cities create opportunitiesfor increased human cooperation and specialization, poten-tially leading to high levels of production, diversity of lifestyles and subcultures, and openness to innovation, inter-cultural contact, and interethnic relations. So, whether welike it or not, less than half a century from now the Ecume-nopolis will have become reality. The present airline, tele-phone, fax, and email network that connects all the centres,is nowadays conceived to consist of mega-urban areas of dif-ferent levels, but should rather be appreciated as Ecume-nopolis. The emerging Ecumenopolis and related forms ofregion-based urbanization with highly discontinuous pat-terns of land use cannot be explained by means of tradition-al concepts using, for example, an urban-rural dichotomy ordelineating a continuum from village, via town, to city