Empirical studies indicate that, when established arrangements are contested, incumbent actors such as professions engage in defensive framing efforts to evoke fear and shame in forms that lead members of their target audiences to work in support of continuity ( & , & (). The function of fear in institutional maintenance: Feeling frightened as an essential ingredient in haute cuisine. Organization Studies, 39(4). 445–465. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840617709306 ; , & al., , , & (). Swimming in a Sea of Shame: Incorporating Emotion into Explanations of Institutional Reproduction and Change. Academy of Management Review, 39(3). 275–301. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2012.0074 ) . Building on this insight, we argue that a profession whose jurisdictional control is contested by a social movement engages in framing efforts to evoke in clients a fear of relying on the alternative project promoted by the movement. It does so by framing the movement’s experiential knowledge as irrelevant, dangerous, and/or unreliable ( , (). Professionals’ Views of the ‘Dangers’ of Self-Help Groups .  Retrieved from http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/51113 ; , (). The Political Language of the Helping Professions. Politics & Society, 4(3). 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1177/003232927400400301 ) . By seeking to evoke this form of fear in individual clients in relation to the movement, profession members attempt to undermine the trust of individual clients in the experiential knowledge on which rests the movement’s alternative project ( , & al., , & (). Examining Anger’s Immobilizing Effect on Institutional Insiders’ Action Intentions in Social Movements. Administrative Science Quarterly, 65(4). 847–886. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839219879646 ) For example, a study of childbirth experiences suggests that obstetrics professionals seek to evoke fear in pregnant women of complications related to giving birth at home accompanied by peers, thereby attempting to undermine the trust of these women in the home birth movement ( , & al., , & (). Childbirth Fear: Relation to Birth and Care Provider Preferences. Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health, 63(1). 58–67. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmwh.12675 ) .

Similarly, drawing on these studies we suggest that a profession faced with jurisdictional contestation engages in defensive framing efforts to evoke in clients a shame of deviating from its prescriptions. The profession does so by framing deviance from its prescriptions as a moral flaw and/or a self-degradation ( , & al., , , & (). Swimming in a Sea of Shame: Incorporating Emotion into Explanations of Institutional Reproduction and Change. Academy of Management Review, 39(3). 275–301. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2012.0074 ; & , & (). Emotions in Institutions: Bullying as a Mechanism of Institutional Control. InAshkanasy, N., Zerbe, W. & Hätel, C. (Eds.), Research on Emotion in Organizations. (pp. 219–243). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S1746-979120140000010017/full/html ) . By seeking to evoke this form of shame in individual clients in relation to the movement, profession members attempt to cause their detachment from the movement as a collective actor. For example, medical professionals seek to shame patients in whom they diagnose obesity into compliance with the profession’s eating, exercising, and treatment prescriptions ( , (). Shame on us for shaming people with excess weight. Association of American Medical Colleges. Retrieved from https://www.aamc.org/news/shame-us-shaming-people-excess-weight ) , attempting to cause these patients’ detachment from the fat acceptance movement ( , (). Fat activism: a radical social movement. HammerOn Press. ) .

Studies also indicate that incumbent actors facing contestation seek to evoke anger and pride in forms that lead members of their target audience to work in support of continuity ( , & al., , & (). Maintaining the Values of a Profession: Institutional Work and Moral Emotions in the Emergency Department. Academy of Management Journal, 60(1). 200–237. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0870 ; , & al., , , & (). Emotions Uncorked: Inspiring Evangelism for the Emerging Practice of Cool-Climate Winemaking in Ontario. Academy of Management Journal, 60(2). 461–499. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2014.0092 ) . Thus, we argue that a profession facing jurisdictional contestation by a social movement engages in framing efforts to evoke anger in clients at the movement for jeopardizing a proper response to their needs. It does so by framing compliance with the profession’s prescriptions as a righteous imperative ( , & al., , & (). Maintaining the Values of a Profession: Institutional Work and Moral Emotions in the Emergency Department. Academy of Management Journal, 60(1). 200–237. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.0870 ; , (). The moral emotions. InDavidson, R., Scherer, K. & Goldsmith, H. (Eds.), Handbook of affective sciences. (pp. 852–870). Oxford University Press. ) . By seeking to evoke this form of anger in individual clients in relation to the movement, profession members attempt to gain the attachment of clients to the profession as a collective actor. For example, insider researcher ( , (). Moving politics: emotion and act up’s fight against AIDS. The University of Chicago Press. ) recounts how the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry sought to evoke the anger of people living with HIV/AIDS and direct it at ACT/UP activists whose disruptive protest tactics, the medical profession claimed, compromised the development and distribution of treatments that people living with HIV/AIDS urgently needed. In doing so, the profession was attempting to gain the attachment of individual clients in it as a responsible collective actor trying to uphold established arrangements which, the profession argued, benefited people living with HIV/AIDS.

We also argue that a profession faced with jurisdictional contestation engages in defensive framing efforts to evoke in clients a pride of supporting established arrangements. It does so by framing the profession’s expert knowledge as relevant, safe, and/or reliable ( , (). High-Stakes Institutional Translation: Establishing North America’s First Government-sanctioned Supervised Injection Site. Academy of Management Journal, 60(5). 1771–1800. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0714 ) . By seeking to evoke this form of pride in individual clients in relation to the profession, professionals attempt to strengthen the trust of clients in the profession’s expert knowledge. This bond of trust in expert knowledge provides supportive audience members with a reassuring sense of being cared for by a dutiful collective of professionals ( , (). Introduction: Trust and Professionalism: Challenges and Occupational Changes. Current Sociology, 54(4). 515–531. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392106065083 ; & , & (). Trust as a Social Reality. Social Forces, 63(4). 967. https://doi.org/10.2307/2578601 ) . For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals presented themselves in the media as selfless “saviors” by telling their inspiring stories of dutifully working “at the forefront, keeping themselves and their families at risk just to treat this disease and save lives” ( , & al., , , & (). Healthcare professionals are “corona saviors” not “warriors”. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 11(5). 1602. https://doi.org/10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_1737_20 ) . Such framing efforts seek to evoke the pride of citizens in supporting the healthcare professions, as well as to cultivate the public’s trust in their expert knowledge amid the global pandemic.

In sum, we build on social studies of emotions to argue that professions facing jurisdictional contestation engage in defensive framing efforts to evoke fear and shame in ways that undermine the trust of clients in the experiential knowledge of a challenger movement and cause the detachment of clients from the movement, respectively. Additionally, we argue that professions in such situations also engage, although to a lesser extent, in defensive framing efforts to evoke anger and pride in ways that gain the attachment of clients to the profession and strengthen their trust in its expert knowledge, respectively.