H mode behaviour is usually linked to the existence of radial electric fields or to their shear at the edge of tokamaks. The mechanisms are investigated by which such fields are induced in the plasma edge and by which the profile shaping is obtained when radial currents are imposed by electrode polarization. Earlier detailed experimental field measurements are successfully compared with a theoretical conductivity model in which neoclassical non-ambipolar transport and mobility through ion-neutral collisions are predominant. Strong neoclassical viscosity in the bulk plasma allows significant fields to develop only at the very edge of the plasma. There, a delicate balance between viscosity and ion-neutral friction takes place, which strongly affects the magnitude of the fields and the spatial location and the threshold condition for L-H field bifurcation. It is also shown how to verify experimentally the neoclassical diffusion coefficients in the plateau regime