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Frailty, abjection and the ‘othering’ of the fourth age

Abstract Once exceptional, a long life is now an everyday expectation for many citizens of the prosperous nations. The consequence of this transformation in life expectancy however has led to a set of contradictory responses, representing threats as much as opportunities. Old age is no longer a stable coherent part of the life course; its future is fragmented by the competing narratives of the third age (opportunity) and the fourth age (threat). While there is a tendency to frame this distinction primarily through the lens of socio-demography and/or ‘stages of life,’ this paper proposes an alternative model. This model argues that later life is now represented through two different, though not unrelated, paradigms. The first frames the third age as a network of cultural fields dominated by rising consumerism and changing social relationships, while the second frames the fourth age as a negatively developed social imaginary of ‘real old age. ’ The central features of this imaginary, we suggest, are frailty, abjection and the ‘othering of the self. This paper elaborates this theorising of the fourth age, briefly outlining each of these three features before considering in more detail the nature of othering and its consequences for those affected by this particular imaginary.