Resonance, Education and Adolescence

Date: October 15, 2025, online

Organizers:   Jeff Frank (St Lawrence University) & Gottfried Schweiger (Salzburg)

Resonance, in Hartmut Rosa’s formulation, centers on the dynamic, reciprocal relationships individuals establish with their environments. This perspective foregrounds how a sense of attunement and emotional responsiveness can nurture identity, belonging, self-efficacy, and well-being, while also revealing the risks of alienation and disconnection when such ties are weakened. Adolescence, often marked by the search for meaning, personal agency, and authentic connections, provides a particularly rich terrain in which to explore these resonant bonds and the moral significance they hold for flourishing. We aim to illuminate how resonant relationships—in families, peer groups, schools, and broader communities—can influence the development of agency, self-understanding, and well-being among young people, while also acknowledging the alienation that can arise when such relationships are absent or disrupted.

By integrating an ethical perspective, we can probe how resonance can guide adolescent development toward values such as empathy, respect, and social responsibility, thereby contributing to discussions of what it means to lead a good life during this formative stage of the lifespan. We also invite reflections on how resonance relates to alternative models of the good life and flourishing—such as the capability approach and other frameworks that emphasize human potential, autonomy, and relationality—seeking to compare, contrast, and possibly synthesize these viewpoints.

In addition to these relational dimensions, we want to explore the critical role of material resources and infrastructures that underpin well-being and flourishing during adolescence. Whether discussing access to quality education, healthcare, stable housing, digital connectivity, or community support, it is essential to explore how these tangible factors can enable or limit opportunities for resonance to take root. We encourage contributors to consider how resonance interacts with structural realities—such as socio-economic inequities, policy frameworks, and institutional barriers—and how an understanding of material conditions might refine or extend the resonance perspective. This may lead authors to consider how unmediated or unsupervised technology usage, supports or lack of supports for carers, access to religious and spiritual experiences, and experience with youth athletics—to name a few possible examples—can undermine or enable resonant experiences for adolescents.

After our conference, revised papers will be submitted to a special issue of Ethics and Education.

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