This text is a translation of a little-known article from the famous American political scientist Murray Edelman (1919-2001), initially published in 1978 under the title “Space and the Social Order” (Journal of Architectural Education, 32 (2)). In his comments, initially addressed to architects and architecture scholars, Mr. Edelman analyzes the specific role of spaces and architectural settings in the institutionalization of social order and, in particular, in the reinforcement of symbolic hierarchies and categories that underlie it