The role of emotions in qualitative research receives increasing attention. We argue for an active rather than a reactive approach towards emotions to improve the quality of research; emotions are a vital source of information and researchers use emotions strategically. Analysing the emotion work of researchers in the process of gaining, securing and maintaining access to the Swedish judiciary, we propose that the emotion work involved is a type of emotional labour, required by the researcher in order to successfully collect data. The particular case of researching elites is highlighted. Emotional labour is analysed along three dimensions: 1. Strategic emotion work – building trust outwards and self-confidence inwards; 2. Emotional reflexivity – attentiveness to emotional signals monitoring one’s position and actions in the field; and 3. Emotion work to cope with emotive dissonance – inward-directed emotion work to deal with the potentially alienating effects of strategic emotion work.

Introducing a sociological perspective on judicial emotions, we argue that previous studies underemphasize structural and interactional dimensions. Through key concepts in the sociology of emotions we relate professional court actors’ emotion management to the emotional regime of the judiciary. Examples from the Swedish judiciary illustrate three main arguments: (a) The idea of rational justice as nonemotional must be investigated as a joint accomplishment including collective emotion management; (b) Judicial objectivity requires situated emotion management and empathy, orientated by emotions of pride/shame; (c) The structural dimensions of power/status mitigate feeling and display rules. The situated power of the judge is upheld by ritual deference from other court professionals. Concluding, we suggest topics to develop structural and interactional perspectives on judicial emotion.

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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 the assumption of a judicial system that operates rationally and without emotion, Professional Emotions in Court reveals how this assumption shapes professionals' perceptions and performance of their work, but hampers emotional reflexivity, and questions whether the judicial system might gain in legitimacy if the role of emotional processes were recognized and reflected upon.