Theo Lim's paper on trauma in planning

Several community members speaking in a circle in an office-like meeting space.

August 17, 2026

We're proud to celebrate a new paper in Planning Theory and Practice published by SCARP Associate Professor Theo Lim et al, deep-diving into the psychological and emotional ramifications of planning decisions on people, as well as discussing potential frameworks for how best to address it and protect people and create more just systems.

Trauma as Condition and Trauma as Claim:

Advancing the Concept of Trauma in Planning Theory and Practice

By:

SCARP Associate Professor Theo Lim (PI)
Co-PIs Stephen Niamke, Decca Knight, Bradley Stephens, & Paroma Wagle

Full abstract (click to expand)

As Lim et al state, "Planners have long grappled with the relationship between planning and displacement, and the disproportionate burdens of displacement on the already marginalized. Whether through forcible removal by urban policy or through diffuse social-economic forces such as gentrification, residents not only experience loss materially, but psychologically and emotionally."

Lim et al elaborate on how negative impacts are often disproportionately disrupted between populations, and recognising this fact as a form of trauma has implications both for how planners engage with members of the community and for the profession's obligations regarding the harms it has caused. “Regardless of how displacement occurs, and irrespective of its material outcomes, self-aware planners should consider the psychological and emotional impacts on communities.” Even in scenarios where planners ‘solve’ tangible problems and improve conditions, residents meant to benefit can experience loss of connection, social isolation, and other negative tolls.

The paper describes all this with an example from his experience, "working in the specter of historical displacement that triggered intense emotional reactions to a contemporary land-use development conflict in a small city in the Southern United States: Roanoke, Virginia. We came together during the City of Roanoke’s process to update an area plan. The area is located directly north of a predominantly African American neighborhood, many of whose residents had experienced the destruction of, and displacement from, another historic African American neighborhood decades earlier. A resident activist group ["Friends of Evans Spring"] formed to resist the contemporary plan.

Addressing Roanoke's City Council, Theo Lim said directly to the mayor, "This is the kind of relationship that the residents we worked with would like to cultivate with their elected officials, government staff, and anyone asked to 'engage community' in a public decision-making process."