Symbolic Power in the World Trade Organization

摘要

Matthew Eagleton-Pierce's Symbolic Power in the World Trade Organization makes the important claim that power should be studied in broad rather than narrow terms. Indeed, concretely, it argues in favour of incorporating a sociologically informed understanding of power-rooted in Bourdieu's notion of 'symbolic power'-into the study of trade politics. In making the case for this argument, it claims that Bourdieu's approach provides us with a viable alternative to the compulsory, institutional, structural and productive approaches which Eagleton-Pierce identifies in previous writings on the topic. As he makes clear, however, his choice to focus on symbolic power does not reflect a desire to simply discard these approaches, or even to set up a gladiatorial battle over intellectual supremacy between them. Rather, Eagleton-Pierce argues that Bourdieu's notion is largely complementary to these approaches, while allowing enquiries into the functioning of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to avoid a number of their limitations. These limitations, he contends, 'have cut short or worked against the development of more critical notions of power and legitimacy', and hence reveal 'the analytical value of blending insights from the field of international political economy (IPE) with sociological perspectives on power'.