Building civil society through finance: the Ethical Bank in Italy

This paper deals with \uabethical finance\ubb in advanced societies. The first part consists of some theoretical considerations focussed on the relationship between finance and the civil sphere in European societies. Here we argue that the most innovative phenomena in this domain are represented by an increasing number of organizations operating inside the financial system, while emerging from the sphere of civil society. Such \uabethical investors\ubb may introduce momentous redefinitions of empirical and theoretical borders between \uabpublic\ubb, \uabprivate\ubb, and \uabthird sector\ubb spheres of society. The second part presents the results of a recent case study conducted on the \uabEthical Bank\ubb (EB) active in Italy since 1999. EB is analyzed with regard to why and how it was born, what its aims are, how it organizes, and above all what culture it tends to express. The main characteristics of EB are. 1) in a structural perspective: a peculiar network organization involving actors bearing diverse interests and identities; the creation of new \uabcivil markets\ubb. 2) In a cultural perspective, a \uabnew spirit of money\ubb, that we call \uabplan2 oriented money\ubb. We argue that EB will fully develop its potential for socio-cultural change insofar as it articulates a \uabcivil meaning of money\ubb comprising relationality and responsibility