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Abolition and Social Work: Possibilities, Paradoxes, and the Practice of Community Care
A critical anthology exploring the debates, conundrums, and promising practices around abolition and social work in academia and within impacted communities.
Within social work—a profession that has been intimately tied to and often complicit in the building and sustaining of the carceral state—abolitionist thinking, movement-building, and radical praxis are shifting the field. Critical scholarship and organizing have helped to name and examine the realities of carceral social work, as well as the many ways in which social work has perpetrated criminalization and punishment through family regulation, juvenile justice, anti-violence efforts, immigration control, and more. In this new context, the editors and contributors to Abolition and Social Work Is abolitionist social work possible, or even the goal?
While there is a long history of liberatory social work, the emerging nexus of abolition and social work compels new inquiry, reflection, and shared practice. Abolition and Social Work offers an orientation to abolitionist theory for social workers and explores the tensions and paradoxes in realizing abolitionist practice in social work—a necessary intervention in contemporary discourse regarding carceral social work, and a compass for recentering this work through the lens of abolition, transformative justice, and collective care.
Within social work—a profession that has been intimately tied to and often complicit in the building and sustaining of the carceral state—abolitionist thinking, movement-building, and radical praxis are shifting the field. Critical scholarship and organizing have helped to name and examine the realities of carceral social work, as well as the many ways in which social work has perpetrated criminalization and punishment through family regulation, juvenile justice, anti-violence efforts, immigration control, and more. In this new context, the editors and contributors to Abolition and Social Work Is abolitionist social work possible, or even the goal?
While there is a long history of liberatory social work, the emerging nexus of abolition and social work compels new inquiry, reflection, and shared practice. Abolition and Social Work offers an orientation to abolitionist theory for social workers and explores the tensions and paradoxes in realizing abolitionist practice in social work—a necessary intervention in contemporary discourse regarding carceral social work, and a compass for recentering this work through the lens of abolition, transformative justice, and collective care.
264 pages, Paperback
Published April 30, 2024
45 people are currently reading
638 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 15, 2025
3.75
I’m sleepy so I can’t write the thorough review this deserves. But this was good! I just wish the writers used more concrete examples or statistics when possible.
I’m sleepy so I can’t write the thorough review this deserves. But this was good! I just wish the writers used more concrete examples or statistics when possible.
February 13, 2025
much love SW759 <33333333
November 15, 2024
5 stars. Abolition and Social Work is an amazing book. W/out a doubt a truly groundbreaking contribution to critical social work scholarship. Every chapter in this book challenges us to reimagine the field of social work beyond its carceral entanglements, centring abolition as both a guiding principle and a transformative practice. This book offers an urgent intervention into the ways social work perpetuates systemic harm while pointing toward liberatory alternatives grounded in community love, solidarity, and care.
As someone who’s studying to be a social worker, I found one of the book’s strengths was in its nuanced exploration of the contradictions w/in social work—something I’ve been thinking about fr a long time. The book doesn’t shy away frm examining social work’s complicity in maintaining oppressive systems, including its historical alignment w the carceral state, colonisation, and white supremacy. By situating social work w/in these broader structures, it critiques its reliance on reformist paradigms and questions whether true justice and liberation can be achieved w/in the confines of a system designed to manage, rather than dismantle, oppression and inequality.
I also really appreciated the chapter on social work’s entanglement w mandatory reporting. It highlights the paradoxes that social workers face when attempting to navigate systemic demands while practicing in ways that prioritise care, liberation, and justice. Mandatory reporting often targets communities already under heightened surveillance, such as Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, low-income and working-class families, immigrants, single mothers of colour, etc. Mandatory reports can lead to child welfare interventions that remove children frm their families, placing them into and cycling them through foster systems well known fr causing incredible harm. Mandatory reporting frameworks often fail to distinguish between neglect caused by systemic poverty and oppression and intentional harm. Families struggling w housing insecurity, financial distress, food instability, or inadequate healthcare are frequently reported, framing structural inequities as individual failings. Abolitionists argue that mandatory reporting funnels families into punitive systems, such as child welfare or criminal legal systems, rather than addressing root causes like poverty, systemic racism, and lack of community resources, among many others. These systems outright prioritise control and punishment over healing and support.
On that note though, the book also offers a vision fr abolitionist social work rooted in community care, mutual aid, and solidarity. It outlines various actionable strategies fr social workers committed to anti-oppressive and abolitionist practice, such as divesting frm and refusing to engage w carceral systems, building community-led alternatives, and reimagining accountability processes. It underscores the necessity of collective action, positioning abolition not as an individual endeavour but as a communal commitment to structural transformation.
Overall, Abolition and Social Work is an essential text fr anyone committed to rethinking the role of social work in fostering liberation rather than perpetuating harm. It is a bold and hopeful blueprint fr what social work could become if it aligns itself w abolition and abolitionist principles. This book is a must-read fr social workers, educators, activists, and anyone who is seeking to dismantle oppressive systems and build futures rooted in care, liberation, love, and justice. Please read this book.
As someone who’s studying to be a social worker, I found one of the book’s strengths was in its nuanced exploration of the contradictions w/in social work—something I’ve been thinking about fr a long time. The book doesn’t shy away frm examining social work’s complicity in maintaining oppressive systems, including its historical alignment w the carceral state, colonisation, and white supremacy. By situating social work w/in these broader structures, it critiques its reliance on reformist paradigms and questions whether true justice and liberation can be achieved w/in the confines of a system designed to manage, rather than dismantle, oppression and inequality.
I also really appreciated the chapter on social work’s entanglement w mandatory reporting. It highlights the paradoxes that social workers face when attempting to navigate systemic demands while practicing in ways that prioritise care, liberation, and justice. Mandatory reporting often targets communities already under heightened surveillance, such as Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, low-income and working-class families, immigrants, single mothers of colour, etc. Mandatory reports can lead to child welfare interventions that remove children frm their families, placing them into and cycling them through foster systems well known fr causing incredible harm. Mandatory reporting frameworks often fail to distinguish between neglect caused by systemic poverty and oppression and intentional harm. Families struggling w housing insecurity, financial distress, food instability, or inadequate healthcare are frequently reported, framing structural inequities as individual failings. Abolitionists argue that mandatory reporting funnels families into punitive systems, such as child welfare or criminal legal systems, rather than addressing root causes like poverty, systemic racism, and lack of community resources, among many others. These systems outright prioritise control and punishment over healing and support.
On that note though, the book also offers a vision fr abolitionist social work rooted in community care, mutual aid, and solidarity. It outlines various actionable strategies fr social workers committed to anti-oppressive and abolitionist practice, such as divesting frm and refusing to engage w carceral systems, building community-led alternatives, and reimagining accountability processes. It underscores the necessity of collective action, positioning abolition not as an individual endeavour but as a communal commitment to structural transformation.
Overall, Abolition and Social Work is an essential text fr anyone committed to rethinking the role of social work in fostering liberation rather than perpetuating harm. It is a bold and hopeful blueprint fr what social work could become if it aligns itself w abolition and abolitionist principles. This book is a must-read fr social workers, educators, activists, and anyone who is seeking to dismantle oppressive systems and build futures rooted in care, liberation, love, and justice. Please read this book.
June 13, 2025
Fantastic book, highly recommend to anyone in the social work field.
“A social work committed to equality and justice can’t shy away from activism or from unpopular causes” (pg xii)
“It may seem paradoxical, but in this racist society, we who are white will overcome our oppression as women only when we reject once and for all the privilege conferred on us by our white skin. For these privileges are not real. They are a device through which we are kept under control” (pg 12).
“We can still imagine a transformed social work, one that is rooted in solidarity over charity; one that is decolonized, professionalized, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist; and one that is committed to repair, accountability, and continual transformation” (pg 24).
“Social workers were always the people who put out the flames, but never the ones to prevent the fire or, more importantly to me, the ones to start one” (pg 79).
“An abundance of research shows that forcibly separating children from their parents results in significant and lifelong trauma, regardless of how long the separation lasts” (pg 110).
“We can spend our time debating whether social work is obsolete and should end, or we can come together in this distortion; try our damnedest to take control of it with shared, relentless commitment to liberation; and twist the field into something new” (pg 140).
“I call attention to Israel’s carceral violence to invite social work colleagues around the world to work in solidarity with Palestine to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing attempts of erasure of the Indigenous people of Palestine, and to abolish the Israeli occupation of Palestinians and their land” (pg 184).
“A social work committed to equality and justice can’t shy away from activism or from unpopular causes” (pg xii)
“It may seem paradoxical, but in this racist society, we who are white will overcome our oppression as women only when we reject once and for all the privilege conferred on us by our white skin. For these privileges are not real. They are a device through which we are kept under control” (pg 12).
“We can still imagine a transformed social work, one that is rooted in solidarity over charity; one that is decolonized, professionalized, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist; and one that is committed to repair, accountability, and continual transformation” (pg 24).
“Social workers were always the people who put out the flames, but never the ones to prevent the fire or, more importantly to me, the ones to start one” (pg 79).
“An abundance of research shows that forcibly separating children from their parents results in significant and lifelong trauma, regardless of how long the separation lasts” (pg 110).
“We can spend our time debating whether social work is obsolete and should end, or we can come together in this distortion; try our damnedest to take control of it with shared, relentless commitment to liberation; and twist the field into something new” (pg 140).
“I call attention to Israel’s carceral violence to invite social work colleagues around the world to work in solidarity with Palestine to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing attempts of erasure of the Indigenous people of Palestine, and to abolish the Israeli occupation of Palestinians and their land” (pg 184).
October 14, 2024
For the most part for me, this book was preaching to the choir. It does a good job of introducing concepts and practical ideas, but I also would have like to see more about the tensions (especially in practice) inherent to abolitionist social work, whether within or outside of state-sanctioned "social work".
October 30, 2024
excellent book to read while i apply to social work school
September 16, 2024
I recommend this collection of essays for anyone involved in social work or even socially-oriented work more broadly. Some of the essays, especially those in the Possibilities section, encouraged me to think deeply and in novel ways about the work I do, perfectly combining philosophical notions with real-life examples and prompts to guide conversation. The essays also generally did a good job of respecting its audience without condescending readers who may be earlier on in their abolitionist journeys; in fact, much of this book is helpful for people at any point in their abolitionist development.
My biggest critiques are in the collection of these essays. I did not feel that the arc I experienced while reading matched the promised roadmap of possibilities, paradoxes, praxis. Also, many of the most thought-provoking essays where placed earlier in the book, so it was difficult for me to keep my interest in the latter half. Still, I would highly recommend the entire book, including those I deemed a bit less useful.
My biggest critiques are in the collection of these essays. I did not feel that the arc I experienced while reading matched the promised roadmap of possibilities, paradoxes, praxis. Also, many of the most thought-provoking essays where placed earlier in the book, so it was difficult for me to keep my interest in the latter half. Still, I would highly recommend the entire book, including those I deemed a bit less useful.
July 3, 2025
I really appreciated how this book, an amalgamation of several interviews, articles, and papers, was able to hold multiple perspectives even when those perspectives were contradictory based in that persons experience. The overarching idea is that social workers as a field is a necessary aspect of capitalism, therefore the field itself contributes to the harm produced under capitalism and is limited in its scope and ability to push anti-capitalist practices professionally. This emphasizes the need for social workers to be involved in social justice movements and education outside of the field.
This is by no means a quick read as I would urge social workers to really engage with how this makes you feel and internalize it in a way that activates you to be a better person both in your role but especially outside of the profession.
This is by no means a quick read as I would urge social workers to really engage with how this makes you feel and internalize it in a way that activates you to be a better person both in your role but especially outside of the profession.
October 9, 2025
A really powerful collection of essays that helped sharpen my thinking and challenged me to wrestle with the contradictions and possibilities in abolitionist social work. While this book clearly sits within a wider literature on abolition, I read these essays as an entry point into the conversation on how abolition and social work can coexist, collide, and cohere. They offer pointed questions and reflections for us to consider as we decide how to meet the challenges of the social work profession in a time of fascist resurgence.
May 21, 2024
The culmination of authors and perspectives this book included made it engaging. I learned something new every page, or a past thought was put in different words to enhance my understanding. As a social work student, I will be sure to take the lessons from this book beyond my formal education and into my community. This book will be at the top of my recommendation list for anyone interested in the complex field of social work.
January 21, 2025
“Hope is a powerful medicine, and futurisms and speculative fiction give us hope, and they give us a road map for ways of being.”
Required reading for mental health professionals, anybody in an helping profession, and tbh every person who considers themself an abolitionist or a fan of basic human decency.
Required reading for mental health professionals, anybody in an helping profession, and tbh every person who considers themself an abolitionist or a fan of basic human decency.
May 26, 2024
There’s so much in this book that makes me want to learn more, but importantly it provides ideas and interventions that can be applied regardless of our particular circumstances. I’m very grateful to all who contributed to bringing “Abolition and Social Work” into the world.
December 16, 2024
One of the most profound books I've read on social work.
November 22, 2025
Thank god for this book. Can’t wait for my seminar next semester where I’ll get to read it again🙂↕️
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews