The organization of financialization The structure and development of the field of investment funds in France

This article deals with the financialization of French companies based on the specific case of investment funds and "leveraged buy-out" (LBO) transactions. It is intended to test two hypotheses: that of change through the invasion of foreign actors and that of change by a process of conversion of the French economic elite. To this end, it analyses the structure of the field of investment funds in France in the 2000s -in particular its mode of differentiation and integration- and then describes the conditions economic, political and ideological- which have favoured its emergence and its integration into French capitalism since the 1980s. The invasion hypothesis is not supported because of the particular structure of the field that is not totally dominated by Anglo-American actors. The conversion hypothesis is more relevant but not entirely satisfactory: mass conversion occurred in the 1990s, when the field had already emerged and stabilised. The emergence of this strategic field of action is more likely to be due to the merger of central and peripheral segments, and it was able to widen its scope thanks to the modification of the structural context during the period 1990-2000.