The Recuperation of Climate Engagement

A Dispositif Analysis of the Carbon-Tracking App OneClimate

Authors

  • Christoph Gaßner University of Vienna, Faculty of Psychology
  • Thomas Slunecko Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, Faculty of Psychology https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0199-5527

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/irtp.v3i1.167400

Keywords:

climate engagement, digital capitalism, carbon tracking apps, dispositif analysis, walkthrough method

Abstract

Many of the most pressing issues of our time are consequences of the way our global economy is organized. As such they call for forms of collective engagement that transcend the level of individual efforts. However, many political imperatives addressing these problems are directed at the individual: Reduce your carbon footprint! Practice social distancing! Such imperatives undermine collective efforts by undercutting the search for a collective response with a direct call for individual action. Theoreticians like Slavoj Žižek or Shoshana Zuboff have pointed to capitalism’s self-enhancing tendencies to appropriate resistive impulses as market opportunities. Current digital capitalism’s appropriation strategies often connect to individualistic imperatives, and smartphone applications have become essential vectors in this. Carbon tracking apps, for example, are enticing individuals to cut down on carbon emissions by measuring their carbon footprint. We analyse one such carbon tracking app, OneClimate, by systematically stepping through its interface. Such walkthrough creates a data basis of screenshots and field notes that allows for a reconstruction of the app’s structure and functions, the intended use, and the ideal user. Our analysis then exposes the app as a micro-dispositif, i.e., as a sociocultural artefact that aligns the self-governance of individuals with the requirements of neoliberal governance. While providing us with practical means for individual little action for the better, it pushes aside the felt need for system-challenging collective engagement and theorising. Through this offering of a quiet conscience, our empathy with Gaia, our capacity to mourn its destruction and to feel guilty and ashamed for being part of it, is hijacked, reoriented towards the status quo, and further capitalized on.

Author Biographies

Christoph Gaßner, University of Vienna, Faculty of Psychology

Christoph Gaßner is a master’s student at University of Vienna’s Faculty of Psychology with a focus on cognition, emotion, and methods in Psychology. Since he started his studies of psychology in 2019, he has developed an interest in qualitative methods and cultural psychology. Under the guidance of Thomas Slunecko, Christoph Gaßner has concentrated on the analysis of apps and digital artefacts, thereby drawing on media theory, Foucault and Critical Theory. His master thesis on the dispositif analysis of the carbon tracking app OneClimate forms the basis of this article.

Thomas Slunecko, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, Faculty of Psychology

Thomas Slunecko is a social researcher at University of Vienna’s Faculty of Psychology (Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology). Starting with his habilitation treatise in 2002, he has developed an approach to cultural psychology which is inspired by media theory, phenomenology, systems theory, and cultural philosophy. Thomas Slunecko has extensive expertise in qualitative research methods, especially in metaphor, discourse, dispositif, and picture analysis. He is the founder and scientific director of the Vienna based independent Institut für Kulturpsychologie und qualitative Sozialforschung (IKUS), an editorial board member of Culture & Psychology and Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science, and a licensed psychotherapist in Austria.

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Published

2026-05-08

How to Cite

Gaßner, C., & Slunecko, T. (2026). The Recuperation of Climate Engagement: A Dispositif Analysis of the Carbon-Tracking App OneClimate. International Review of Theoretical Psychologies, 3(1), 405–425. https://doi.org/10.7146/irtp.v3i1.167400

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2026): Theory as Engagement

Section

Theorising Institutions, Culture and Contemporary Challanges

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Copyright (c) 2026 Christoph Gaßner, Thomas Slunecko

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