Funds of knowledge and identity in oppressed communities in England: an anticapitalist analysis

In this chapter, we theorise how Funds of Knowledge and Identity methodologies can offer the potential to develop solidarity between oppressed minorities and groups in working-class communities in England in their struggles against capital in multiple cultural, political and economic forms. We do so by drawing attention to how oppressive histories, structures and discourses in England have created and reproduced classed and racialised divisions and identities in society which, we argue, are manifest in current ways of thinking about social justice research and activity. Narratives emerging from two projects will be used to illustrate the many contradictions but also commonalities which exist within multi-faceted and nuanced experiences of alienation in the North of England. We conclude that while the English working class was made in itself in the laest few centuries, we still have a huge task – and not much time - to make it ‘for itself’ as capable of killing capitalism.