Professional Emotions in Court: A Sociological Perspective [Hardcover]

List of Tables and Figures

Acknowledgements

1. Why emotions in court?

2. Background emotions in legal professional life

3. Organisational Emotion Management

4. The dramaturgy of court emotions

5. Power and status in court

6. Objectivity work as situated emotion management

7. Concluding discussion

References

Index

Professional Emotions in Court examines the paramount role of emotions in the legal professions and in the functioning of the democratic judicial system.

Stina Bergman Blix is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University, Sweden.

?sa Wettergren is a Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology and Work Science at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Professional Emotions in Court examines the paramount role of emotions in the legal professions and in the functioning of the democratic judicial system. Based on extensive interview and observation data in Sweden, the authors highlight the silenced background emotions and the tacitly habituated emotion management in the daily work at courts and prosecution offices. Following participants backstage  whether at the office or at lunch  in order to observe preparations for and reflections on the performance in court itself, this book sheds light on the emotionality of courtroom interactions, such as professional collaboration, negotiations, and challenges, with the analysis of micro-interactions being situated in the broader structural regime of the legal system  the emotive-cognitive judicial frame  throughout.

A demonstration of the false dichotomy between emotion and reason that lies behind tlã!