ABSTRACT
Understanding the positions of cooperative banking in the French banking market leads the sociologist to not only revisit logics related to the placement of banking institutions within this competitive finance space, but more importantly towards contemplating them with regard to the modalities of exercising the profession of banker. The socio-historical background of cooperative banks also reflects that of their integration into the banking field, conveyed by the willingness of their agents to be recognised as 'genuine bankers', all while conserving the financial and symbolic benefits of belonging to an economy which was more 'social' than speculative. The realignment between a social ambition in finance and its practice, and the perpetuation of a shared belief in its possible existence, goes beyond the sole incantatory desire of cooperative banking directors and finds its structural principle not only in the genesis of institutions, but also in the process of structuring the market of banking employment.
