It is a pleasure to write a foreword for the third volume of plaNext, dedicated to ‘Differences and Connections: Beyond Universal Theories in Planning, Urban, and Heritage Studies’. This volume publishes six papers selected from the YA conference held on this topic in Palermo in March 2015, thanks to the support of Francesco Lo Piccolo, at the time acting President of AESOP. Published since 2015, plaNext is a peer-reviewed journal, created and edited by the AESOP Young Academics Network. Since the beginning, AESOP has supported this initiative for two reasons.