Name: Does Power Shape Resillience?
Start: 2026-05-14T09:30:00-0600
End: 2026-05-14T09:45:00-0600

2026 CRHNet Symposium

Thursday May 14, 2026 9:30am - 9:45am MDT

Resilience in emergency management is often described as something communities build from within through preparedness, relationships, and adaptive capacity. However, many communities, especially those in northern and remote regions, experience resilience as something shaped, enabled, or withdrawn by decisions made far beyond their control. This presentation examines how external power dynamics, including political, economic, and infrastructural factors, actively create or erode community resilience. It argues that emergency management must broaden its understanding of what truly determines a community’s ability to withstand and recover from disruption.

Using the recent cancellation of Starlink connectivity expansion in northern Ontario, which was connected to Canada and United States trade tensions, I explore how a decision unrelated to hazards had significant implications for emergency communication, digital inclusion, and community well-being. This case illustrates that resilience is not only a local outcome but also a product of dependencies on infrastructure providers, regulatory decisions, global supply chains, and policy environments.

The presentation introduces the idea of “externalized resilience,” which refers to resilience that depends on systems and actors outside community control. I discuss the implications for risk reduction, planning assumptions, northern and Indigenous communities, and the need to account for structural dependencies in resilience strategies. By examining resilience through the lens of power, the session encourages participants to rethink where vulnerability originates and how it can be addressed.

Speakers

Oghenekevwe Oghenechovwen

PhD Student, Disaster and Emergency Management, York University

Oghenekevwe (Kevwe) Oghenechovwen (he/him) is completing a PhD in Disaster and Emergency Management at York University. His research focuses on understanding data gaps in disaster risk management through governance, power, and institutional perspectives. He has over six years of experience... Read More →

Thursday May 14, 2026 9:30am - 9:45am MDT
PIC 232 NAIT Productivity and Innovation Centre

Insight Talk

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2026 CRHNet Symposium

Oghenekevwe Oghenechovwen

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2026 CRHNet Symposium

Oghenekevwe Oghenechovwen

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