Sturm Und Drang: Guaranteeing Teenage Liberty in Space—An Exploration of the Joys and Dangers of Adolescence in an Off World Context

Abstract

This chapter will address the emotional and relational issues concerning extra-terrestrial existence, focussing on the problems adolescence might pose to a contained community. It will consider the behaviour of children , possible origins of behavioural problems and possible solutions. It will consider too the neurobiological, psychological and biological development of the human and the effect this might have on behaviour; definitions of human maturity; ways of managing relations to the benefit of the community as a whole, and the consequences of all this for considerations of human identity and liberty. Adolescence will be considered in terms of collective responsibility and the emotional landscape of the group. Lastly, conflict resolution, reconciliation and relationality will be explored with regard to children’s and young people’s liberty and well-being in an off world context. Sturm und Drang is used in the Stanley-Hall sense (Adolescence, Its Psychology and its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education, Appleton, New York, 1904) to describe the anxiety, stress and pressure and striving of the adolescent attempting to negotiate the complex and searing landscape of emotion during the teenage years (Stanley-Hall in Adolescence, Its Psychology and its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education, Appleton, New York, 1904). It is also of course a reference to the German literary period of the late 18th century, characterised by works of rousing emotion and rebellion.