Kokoelmarakkaus affektiivisena käytäntönä: Museoammattilaisten tunnetyö ja tuntemisen tavat

Drawing from interviews conducted for the Touching Collections project in 2024, this study examines how museum professionals manage their emotions when working with collections. While previous research describes museum professionals’ personal attachment to museum objects as object love, often seen as unprofessional and unethical within emotional rules emphasizing technical expertise, we introduce the parallel concept of collection love. This term highlights an affective practice that emphasizes the museum professionals’ responsibility of caring for the cultural heritage and includes the idealisation of the systematic and rational nature of collection work. The emotions and affective practices of museum professionals influence how museum objects are handled and examining them provides insight into the tensions between emotions and professional ethics in the museum field.