ABSTRACT
The channels that shape the time-bent current of biography are shifting around us. Post-modern societies have entered an era of radical change in the demography of the human life cycle, in the standardizing of its stages, and in the values imputed to ageing and maturity. Not only are more people living into adulthood and high age; mass longevity has stretched out the life expectancy of relationships. People not only need to anticipate living longer, they have to be prepared to live together longer. The fourgeneration family, once a remote human possibility, may soon be common.
