[Administration: practices, myths and ideologies]

Administration in the social field is examined based on an analysis of its practices, the rationalist myth and its ideological dimensions. In this way, the article discusses the most frequently utilized concepts (administration, management, gerencia, gestión) and their etymologies; the limitations of teaching administration; the complexity of a practice marked by the dimensions of science, art and the social game; and the ideological question underlying the great thought factory that the general theory of administration has been since the start of the 19th century. The article reflects upon the need to construct a theory based in practice contextualized in the global south that goes beyond the classic frames of reference and, above all, to transform administration into a problem to be discussed outside of the knowledge that recognizes it as a technical practice.