"It was sort of in the air for the generation I came to belong to: They had taken care of the war while we, as successors, should create the welfare state: "It's you now, friends – get moving!"" (Informant, 84 years)
Drawing on life course theory, developmental theory, existentialism and Dialogical Self theory my presentation will approach the dialogical interrelatedness of cultural-historical and ontogenetic life through an empirical study of a group of Danish elderly people, who shared the engagement of participating in a Danish NGO: Grandparents for Asylum. As they were proposed to look back and forth in their lives, lines of engagements appeared as existential concerns, that developed with time, showing directionalities of their lives and their present living. In my presentation, I would like to take a closer look on the process of developing as a person as a historically embedded process. The dialogues with historical time will be approached from an existential point of view, drawing in particular on Heidegger's notion of authenticity.