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This paper lays out an argument that, to the extent that the urban politics subfield has moved from the center to the periphery of political science, it is because the subfield has neglected to develop a contemporary, theoretically grounded version of cultural explanation to go along with its attention to institutions and political economy. The paper then introduces such a cultural theory - one that crosscuts the usual class and race divisions in urban inquiry. The paper shows how taking this form of explanation seriously could bring the study of local electoral politics closer to themes that are energizing the American politics field more broadly. It also shows that more serious attention to cultural explanation promises to enrich our efforts to understand urban development politics and policymaking and conflicts involving the politicization of routine city services by radicalized activists as well as conflicts over more purely morality issues. The paper concludes with an acknowledgment of a remaining challenge - conceptualizing how race and ethnicity relate to the new conceptualization of unconventional versus traditional sub-culture in the U.S. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]