‘Already doing the work’: social work, abolition and building the future from the present

Social work internationally is currently subject to debate. Some call for the abolition of social work, detailing legacies harm, inadequate practices and theoretical limitations. Central abolitionist thought tradition community build alternative futures in present, an area receiving less attention. This article adopts auto-ethnographic method, drawing on authors’ experiences UK – childhood as a professional career, respectively consider limitations responses alongside existing harm-reduction practices. Four themes are identified that capture intervention, well acts care resistance. These are: extent engagement with context knowledge; resources caring; harm; role relation work. Implications research methods practice discussed.