UCL WTO Forum: 25 Nov 2009, Dr Matthew Eagleton-Pierce

Beyond Mere Symbolism:
An Anatomy of Symbolic Power in the World Trade Organization


Dr Matthew Eagleton-Pierce
University of Oxford, Departmental Lecturer in International Political Economy, Oxford Department of International Development

Chaired by Dr David Hudson, School of Public Policy, UCL

Wednesday 25 November 2009, 6 - 7.30pm 
at UCL Law Faculty

About this event:
This paper seeks to investigate how one can advance a more critical understanding of power in relation to the World Trade Organization (WTO) by drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu’s idea of symbolic power, a concept that focuses on the (mis)recognition of legitimacy in the exercise of power. It argues that conventional perspectives on power in the trading regime have tended to contain legalistic and behaviouralist biases that have cut short, or worked against, the development of more critical notions of power and legitimacy. A concentration on symbolic power aims to address these deficiencies by analysing those systems of knowledge and rhetorical techniques that are, at one and the same, instruments of communication, political domination and, potentially, resistance. The central question addressed is: how does symbolic power manifest itself in the WTO system? There are three main arguments. First, the speaker will argue that while one can see the effects of symbolic power throughout the trading regime, it becomes particularly important at certain moments, most notably in struggles over classifications and at points when certain interests are codified into law. Second, he will argue that symbolic power is accumulated and deployed through different mechanisms of legitimation, of which two are analysed here: framing and mimicry. Third, linking with existing scholarship, he will argue that symbolic power should be understood as operating in a complex relationship with compulsory power and institutional power in regards to both its internal properties and external dynamics. In terms of the empirical application of these conceptual ideas, the paper draws upon evidence from two Southern-led coalitions in agriculture that have emerged during the Doha Round. The first centres on a group of African countries that campaigned for the reform of the international cotton regime, while the second addresses a larger coalition (the G33) that has attempted to rethink food security and rural development concerns. The objective of the argument is therefore not to arrive at a single master category or theory of power, but to open analysts of the trading system to a more rigorous and, at the same time, flexible interrogation of this core concept.

About the speaker:
Dr Matthew Eagleton-Pierce is a Departmental Lecturer in International Political Economy at the University of Oxford. Previously he held a post as a Fellow in International Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His primary research interests are in the field of global political economy, the multilateral trading system (agriculture focus), the conceptual analysis of power and legitimacy, international relations theory, and political sociology. Matt has a particular interest in the work of Pierre Bourdieu. He holds a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

WTO Scholars' Forum
The Forum was set up in September 2006 by Dr Fiona Smith of University College London (UCL)’s Faculty of Laws. The Forum’s aims are to bring together leading experts on the law of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for discussions on WTO law and practice. Discussions are both web-based and face-to-face via conferences and smaller seminars. Experts are drawn from legal practice (solicitors and barristers) and leading universities in London and its immediate surrounding area, although there are plans to expand to national coverage. The Forum is  co-directed with Dr Isabelle Van Damme at University of Cambridge.