ABSTRACT
Radicals can be understood as people who are inherently different. They are typically seen as threatening to social order, while serving specific functions as a targeted outsider. In contemporary narratives, radicals can serve to galvanize members of in-groups against some common threat. In the context of radicals, there are two differentiating factors. The first is an immanent experience of life, and the second is the notion of an outsider. For organizations, the radical can serve as a hegemonic tool to maintain social order. In practice, they act as a temporary salve for the hegemonic structures, sometimes preventing their total collapse. There are diverging perspectives about what radicals are and more importantly, what they were. There are several lenses that one can use to understand radicals in the context of public administration and management more generally. Radicals can also give insights into the nature of social spaces.
