Papers included in this special issue of Environment and Planning A share a commitment to understanding regulation as a social practice. In general, they suggest that the ‘real’ significance of regulation is only made apparent in distinct geographical and economic contexts. Although different in subject matter these papers are about how regulation is institutionally organized, and the origins of regulation in theory and in the exigencies of past and present circumstances. Here, the logic behind this kind of analytical commitment is explicated through a discussion of the notion of ‘real’ regulation in the US context. Emphasis is on the administrative practices of the modern state, eschewing idealism for an appreciation of the significance of institutional cultures of regulation. These arguments are briefly illustrated by reference to the administrative mechanisms used to regulate labor-management relations and corporations' pension obligations in particular. The preoccupation in this paper is with the formalities of regulation. As such, the paper is a manifesto for a way of studying regulation in the spatial sciences which builds upon related literature in administrative law.