Kathleen Staudt offers interesting analytical insight to tell the story of broad-based community organizing in the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation (the Texas IAF). Specifically, Staudt examines Texas IAF organizations in Dallas, Austin, El Paso, and Lubbock (p. 2). The ability of Texas IAF affiliates to meet the internal challenges of or for organizations, given the external realities of politics in the world at large outside of community organizing, in Texas and beyond, is the subject matter Staudt engages. The external realities of politics raise questions about community organizing’s long-term prospects, Staudt points out. The interest in the Texas IAF is important, nevertheless, Staudt says, because of the people the network works with and represents (people of Mexican descent and others in Texas), whose numbers are growing.

The use of organizations theory focusing on internal business or organizational practices in non-governmental and non-profit organizations (NGOs and non-profits) is the analytical insight Staudt offers. The literature can help people know how to hold the NGOs and non-profits that they affiliate with accountable (p. 8). The literature helps people know how to deal with the contradictions there are between theory and practice of and in organizations, that is how theory and practice often do not line up. Organizat