The courtroom as an affective arrangement: analysing atmospheres in courtroom ethnography. Issue 3 (2nd September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bens, Jonas
• Is Part Of: Journal of legal pluralism and unofficial law. Volume 50:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 336
• Page End: 355
• Publication Date: 2018-09-02
• Subjects: Courtroom ethnography -- affect theory -- law and affect -- law and emotion -- law and language -- International Criminal Court -- phenomenology; Legal polycentricity -- Periodicals; Customary law -- Periodicals; Ethnological jurisprudence -- Periodicals; 340.505
• DOI: 10.1080/07329113.2018.1550313
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0732-9113

Abstract

Abstract: This article proposes a methodological approach to courtroom ethnography by developing the idea of the courtroom as an affective arrangement. In the courtroom, humans and their linguistic utterances, but also material objects and infrastructures, visuals, voices, and sounds are relationally entangled. This is the analytical entry point for ethnographically describing the atmosphere of a court proceeding without reducing atmosphere either to the result of courtroom talk or to the emotional experiences of the participants. For a thick ethnographic description of courtroom atmospheres, the ethnographer should point out how all kinds of different bodies perform in the theatre of power that is a court proceeding.