EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE HUSTLE: FORMULATION AND FOUNDATION OF A THEORETICAL-POLITICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL CATEGORY

Abstract

This paper systematizes and discusses the “epistemology of the corre”, a theoretical-political and epistemological category formulated and systematized by Jonas de Souza Gonsalgo in his doctoral thesis “Hell Is Also Pedagogical: Necropolitics, Rap, and the Epistemology of the hustle at the Crossroads of Knowledge”, defended in the Graduate Program in Education at PUC Minas in 2026. The paper derives from the thesis and draws exclusively on the theoretical references used therein. Its purpose is to delimit the concept, explain its foundations, and examine its contributions to education. The underlying research adopted a qualitative, interpretive, and critical approach, using content analysis of three songs from Racionais MC's album “Sobrevivendo no Inferno”, articulated with the perspective of art as confrontation. The discussion shows that the “epistemology of the corre”, cannot be reduced to survival or resistance, as it constitutes a situated way of producing, organizing, validating, and transmitting knowledge forged through the historical experience of Black populations living in urban peripheries. Body, territory, urgency, orality, memory, collectivity, and the reinvention of life constitute its structure. The article concludes that the concept recognizes rap as a legitimate epistemic practice and provides foundations for curriculum decolonization, the recognition of students as epistemic subjects, and the strengthening of antiracist educational practices.