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Publication Open Access Practicing a Polycentric (Post) Metropolis: A Dialogue about the Milan Urban Region(AESOP, 2019-07) Paris, Mario; Balducci, Alessandro‘Practicing a Polycentric (Post) Metropolis’ is the eighth booklet published as part of the AESOP Young Academics ‘Conversation in Planning Theory and Practice’ project whose aim is learning through conversations across generations of planners. In a first phase of the project, booklets were divided in three series or themes, such as, the use of philosophical theories in planning, planning theories and planning practices (Exploring place matters in planning practice), being the last one the framework for this booklet. Now, we have combined these series into a sole and comprehensive structure. From a pedagogical perspective, the uniqueness of the project is learning through conversations. The booklets aim to provide an introduction to the theories and ideas of senior scholars: what and how they contributed to the field of planning; what and who influenced the development of these theories; and how this implicated/reflected on planning debate in theory and/or practice. The young academic authors not only learn from the senior scholars about their work, but also get involved in conversation with them in order to make sense of how the senior scholars have used these theories in their work, and how such theories are applied in planning theory and practice. This booklet has been conceived as a reflection grounded on the practice of planning in the context of the Milan Urban Region. The dialogue merges the vivid experience of Alessandro Balducci with the sharp questions of Mario Paris discussing the phenomenology of post-metropolis and the governance of polycentric urbanized territories in Lombardy. Corinna Morandi and Willem Salet have offered their comments and enriched the conversation, bringing their perspectives into it. Being Urban Planning a practice-oriented discipline, we think it is important to stress the interdependency between theories and the way they apply in various contexts and places. Also, we think that the direct narrative of planners’ experience may open new interesting perspectives for advancing knowledge. In this respect, the extensive interview that is discussed in this booklet - and the reflections built around it - give the reader many insights concerned with an open and plural planning approach in processes of regional urbanization.Publication Open Access Jacques Lacan - Introducing thinkers for planners: a narrative and conversation(AESOP, 2019-06) Gunder, Michael; Wang, ChuanJacques Lacan (1901 –1981) was one of the most influential intellectuals in French cultural life during the 1960s and 1970s. As a renowned philosopher and a controversial psychoanalyst, his yearly seminars in Paris (1953-1980) and concomitant writings (the series of Écrits) further explored Freudian theory based on the study of language and established his celebrity status in France and beyond. In connection with a broad range of other disciplines, his ideas have immensely benefitted critical theory, linguistics, French philosophy, feminist theory, sociology, literary theory and film theory. For urban planning, Lacanian theories enlighten the studies on the unconscious and irrational dimension of theory and practice, which is so often neglected in planning research.