The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that any
spacetime symmetry should be a dynamical symmetry and vice-versa) are controversial. This is directly
connected to the question of how certain structures in physical theories acquire a spatiotemporal character.
In this paper I address these issues from a perspective (arguably functionalist) that relates the classical
discussion about the measurement and geometrical determination of space with a characterization
of the notion of dynamical symmetry in which its application to subsystems that act as measuring devices
plays an essential role. I argue that in order to reformulate and justify Earman’s principles, and to provide
a general account of the chronogeometrical character of some structures, the existence of a coordination
between two notions of congruence, one mathematical and one dynamical, must be assumed for the interpretation
of physical theories. This coordination provides the basis on which we can understand spacetime
in physical theories as the codification (representation) of certain features of the access ideal observers
have to experience.
