The Fourth Age in Prospect.

The bleak but formidable reputation of the fourth age impinges on those living in the third. The consonant expression of fourth age features among older adults on three continents supports Gilleard and Higgs's claim that the fourth age imaginary "contains a universal ontological quality" owing to human corporeality and the senescence to which it is subject. Fourth age studies that document the lived experience of frailty and dependence have the potential to undermine the imaginary and furnish new narratives for facing the future.