The Fourth Age in Prospect
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F23%3A10471548" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/23:10471548 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=8iWaXyn-sJ" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=8iWaXyn-sJ</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbad144" target="_blank" >10.1093/geronb/gbad144</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The Fourth Age in Prospect
Original language description
Objectives have uniquely theorized the fourth age as a "social imaginary" of deep old age that blends notions of frailty, abjection, and the moral relations of care. This report evaluates the coherence and reach of the fourth-age imaginary among older adults in relative good health.Methods In a qualitative design and within samples at 5 sites (in Czechia, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States), 138 adults aged 70+ and still living independently discussed what it would mean to be "not independent" in later life. Replies referenced other people in general, specific people, and one's own actual or potential experience.Results Pooled across sites, the views of our participants confirm the theorized features of the social imaginary. Participants spoke readily of gateway infirmities heralding frailty and of frailty's abjection; expressed dread and abhorrence of dependence, some saying that death would be preferable; and were anxious about nursing homes and about burdening others with an obligation to care for them.Discussion 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 3 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
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
50401 - Sociology
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
N - Vyzkumna aktivita podporovana z neverejnych zdroju
Others
Publication year
2023
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Name of the periodical
Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
ISSN
1079-5014
e-ISSN
1758-5368
Volume of the periodical
78
Issue of the periodical within the volume
12
Country of publishing house
US - UNITED STATES
Number of pages
9
Pages from-to
2062-2070
UT code for WoS article
001096334600001
EID of the result in the Scopus database
2-s2.0-85180011661