Revitalizing Urban Research Can Cultural Explanation Bring Us Back from the Periphery?

摘要

This article lays out an argument that if the urban politics field has become marginalized, it is because the field has neglected to develop a contemporary, theoretically grounded version of cultural explanation to go along with its attention to institutions and political economy. The article introduces such a theoretical framework. It then shows how taking cultural explanation seriously could bring the study of urban politics closer to themes that are energizing the American and comparative politics fields. The article concludes with an acknowledgment of a remaining challenge—conceptualizing how race and ethnicity relate to the new conceptualization of unconventional versus traditional subcultures in the United States.