ABSTRACT
In playing with concepts imaginatively and realistically, public administration thinkers can seek to liberate Public Administration (PA) practice from entrapment in conventional conceptual rigidities and can seek to open practice to new possibilities. Concepts are narrowed so that they fit into a discipline like economics—or a larger discipline like political economy—or an even larger discipline like “the” social sciences. It is practical to recognize that concepts both reveal and mask. POSDCORB is no different from any other concept; no concept is completely, utterly and absolutely true, including this one. Tonto and the Lone Ranger agree on these claims. For another thing, concepts are continually changing their meanings, sucking up new meanings. To reify the thing, it is as if concepts were setting out to deceive. PA is a porous subject, importing concepts right, left, and center, even if the timing of the importations is often tardy.
