Wereldomvangen

Wereldomvangen is a Dutch term that appears in occasional academic and literary discourse to describe the encircling or enveloping of the world by a process, object, or idea. The word is formed from wereld, meaning "world," and omvangen, meaning "to surround" or "to encompass." It is not a widely standardized term in Dutch, and its interpretation depends on context.

In one sense, wereldomvangen denotes the literal or metaphorical encirclement of the globe by phenomena such as global trade networks, satellite communications, or environmental processes that cross borders. In another sense it can refer to a mode of thought that treats the world as a single, coherent totality to be mapped, analyzed, or governed. In literature and cultural critique it may be used to describe a narrative or artwork that seeks to wrap the world into a single frame.

Because it is not widely codified, the exact meaning of wereldomvangen is determined by how it is used. It often signals scale, connectivity, and the tension between local particularities and global unity, and it can carry critical connotations about globalization’s totalizing tendencies.