ABSTRACT
When economic experts start to speak, they do not simply enter into equal and non-coercive communications with other actors in the political economy. On the contrary, economic expert discourses have various impacts on the formation of societies. These discourses produce different forms of power and subjectivation. Starting from a Foucauldian approach to power and discourse, my contribution will show how economic expert discourses operate as power devices. Three different forms of discursive power will be presented and illustrated, taking examples from the Brexit discourse and previous research on economics departments. First, it will be shown how the “performative power” of economic expert discourses contributes to the construction of institutional positions in European politico-economic relations. In a second step, I will demonstrate how the polyphonic structure of controversies over the economic rationality of Brexit produces speaker positions. These positions will be analysed as “imaginary power” that is contributing to the formation of social identities. In a third step, my contribution will analyse the role and logic of academic excellence discourses as “symbolic power” for the formation of superiority myths of expert positions in public discourses. By sketching out the complex field of discourse and power in economic expert communication, this contribution will help to understand the various forms and mechanisms of power that are at work beyond hierarchies, interests and domination practices.
