Ian Hyslop, University of Auckland
Abolitionist theory rejects social work within state systems which uphold the current socio-political status quo. This power formation is deemed to be demarcated by liberal capitalism, coloniality, patriarchy, white supremacy and heteronormativity. Abolitionist practice calls for social work to disengage itself from the carceal institutions of liberal capitalist states which are regarded as inherently repressive and incapable of reform: including police, prisons, mandated addiction treatment, involuntary mental health interventions, and child protection systems. In addition to dismantling carceral systems, the focus should be on imagining and building grass roots social support and provision designed by communities who are disenfranchised by racial capitalism and the associated mechanisms of inequality. The necessary level of social change is transformational rather than reformist but can be accomplished incrementally through changes which undermine and reconstruct the dominant relations of power.
Abolition theory and practice for social work is a broad field concerned with reclaiming an agenda for human emancipation (Detlaff, 2024). Abolition provides a fundamental challenge to contemporary practice, arguing that social work cannot further the goal of social justice when it is tied to the institutions of liberal capitalism. It is asserted that these institutions uphold an unjust set of economic and social relations. Accordingly, abolitionist social work calls for disassociation from prisons, police, child protection services and other non-consensual disciplinary practices. It is maintained that these inherently harmful carceral systems should be rejected and dismantled.
However, abolition is not simply about disestablishing institutions which are perceived to perform punitive functions. It also involves building alternative practices that promote human liberation—developing new conditions of possibility. For social work, this means a significant reorientation, away from soft-policing functions and towards social justice practice based on community need (Toraif & Mueller, 2023).
Abolitionist ideas are grounded in the historical rejection of chattel slavery: that slavery is irredeemably abhorrent and must be abolished rather than reformed. The work of Du Bois (1935) is associated with advocacy for the construction of alternative systems to ensure the freedom and equality of Black Americans. The praxis of the Black Power movement in the US, and the subsequent scholarship of Angela Davis (2024) connects contemporary racial capitalism with the abolitionist critique: that prisons and associated carceral institutions are tied to class- and race-based oppression, that they must be abolished and that new systems which empower disenfranchised communities must be created.
As stated above, abolition advocacy is connected with a history of emancipatory social movements and has been bolstered by the rise of Black Lives Matter after the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020. Abolitionist thinking extends to intersecting forms of oppression and the notion that prisons and state-sponsored welfare systems comprise a self-perpetuating industrial complex which de-legitimises community-centred solutions to systemic social suffering—harm which disproportionately impacts racialised minority populations (Kaba, 2021).
Abolition draws on radical feminist and anti-racist theory. It promotes alternative visions and communities of care which seek to challenge the unequal power relations inscribed within a social order demarcated by liberal capitalism, coloniality, patriarchy, white supremacy and heteronormativity. The discourse of anti-carceral feminism, for example, opposes the policy settings that have resulted in the radically disproportionate imprisonment of Black men. It is argued that the current carceral logic of the US justice system stems from a simplistic and racist approach to addressing violence in the community, and that this orientation has been endorsed historically by some white feminisms (Kim, 2018).
Abolition logic has been vigorously applied to the deconstruction of contemporary child protection services in the US (Roberts, 2023). It is argued that, like the prison system, child protection social work is inherently oppressive; part of a carceral web which reproduces unjust outcomes that accrue disproportionately to poor women and children of colour. It is categorised as a form of state-sponsored family policing that must be abolished.
Abolition discourse is a developing school of academic theory and practice outside of the US. It can be connected with the Marxist heritage of radical social work, which calls for the economic drivers of structural inequality to be confronted. It can also be linked with critical social work scholarship which focuses on altering the power relations which reproduce intersectional oppression. It breaks from this rubric in its clear rejection of working within, or alongside, the carceral state, which is regarded as inextricably aligned with oppressive power structures. Power relations and economic settings within liberal capitalist states are not seen as contestable beyond a narrow band of permissible reform.
For critical social work academics and practitioners, the espoused social justice identity of social work has become increasingly problematic after 40 years of neoliberal ideology, public service retrenchment, business model managerialism and, more recently, conservative political populism. The capacity of social workers employed or funded by the state to advocate for the redistribution of power and resources has been significantly curtailed. This has prompted calls for social work organisations to abandon their liberationist rhetoric in the face of this structuring reality (Maylea, 2021)—or to reclaim the dissenting function of the profession (Garrett, 2021) and its relational social-justice-focused identity (Rogowski, 2020).
However, radical reform is problematic because of the way in which the profession is controlled by the state. Despite the social justice rhetoric, recent scholarship has highlighted the complicity of social work in the oppression of demonised social groups under all manner of repressive regimes over time (Ioakimidis & Wyllie, 2023). This targeting of problem populations is particularly evident in the settler colonial states of Australia, Canada, the US and Aotearoa New Zealand, where care systems are historically mired in abusive practices and assimilative intent in relation to Indigenous populations.
Abolition rejects the surveillance and containment role that the state has assigned to social work. This requires a reclamation of social imagination and a future trajectory which transcends the apparent boundaries imposed by capitalist realism (Brockman, 2024). The intent of abolition work is to build a future where carceral state institutions are not necessary by changing the social conditions that justify their existence. In this imaginary, social work can be part of the solution rather than part of the problem: a force for liberation as opposed to a mechanism of social control.
Abolition social work is internally contested, encompassing a variety of perspectives with differing implications for action. It is generally agreed that transformation can be achieved incrementally: visions have to be developed and disenfranchised communities have to be empowered. Abolitionist practices are distinguished by the concept of non-reformist reforms associated with the work of Andre Gorz (1967): changes that move towards undermining, dismantling and rebuilding, rather than bolstering the current relations of power embedded in state structures.
In summary, the abolitionist position aims to do more than simply alleviate suffering: it supports community-centred practices which engender radical social and economic change. Social work cannot be a force for social justice while it is enmeshed with repressive institutions. At a minimum, it must divest itself of involvement with the carceral arms of the state, such as the police, prisons and the child protection system, if it is to cease colluding with the oppression of structurally impoverished and racialised communities.
This entry is currently in pre-publication review. The final version will be available later this year in the Elgar Encyclopaedia of Social Work, edited by C. Fouche & L. Beddoe published in 2025 Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
References
Brockman, O. (2024). Imagining the end of official social work: Thinking beyond the possible and probable. British Journal of Social Work. https://academic.oup.com/bjsw/article/54/7/2862/7667853
Davis, A. (2024). Abolition: Politics, practices, promises (Vol. 1). Hamish Hamilton.
Dettlaf, A. (2024). Ending carceral social work. In M. Kim, C. Rasmussen, & D. Washington Sr. (Eds.), Abolition and social work: Possibilities, paradoxes and the practice of community care (pp. 109–115). Haymarket Books.
Du Bois, W. (1935). Black reconstruction – An essay toward a history of the part which black folk played in the attempt to reconstruct democracy in America, 1860-1880. Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Garrett, P. (2021). “A world to win”: In defence of (dissenting) social work – A response to Chris Maylea. British Journal of Social Work, 51, 1131–1149.
Gorz, A. (1967). Strategy for labor: A radical proposal. Beacon Press.
Ioakimidis. V., & Wyllie, A. (Eds.). (2023). Social work’s histories of complicity and resistance – A tale of two professions. Policy Press.
Kaba, M. (2021). We do this ‘til we free us: Abolitionist organizing and transforming justice. Haymarket Press.
Kim, M. (2018). From carceral feminism to transformative justice: Women-of-color feminism and alternatives to incarceration. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 27(3), 219–233.
Maylea, C. (2021). The end of social work. British Journal of Social Work, 51, 772–789.
Roberts, D. (2023). Torn apart: How the child welfare system destroys black families–And how abolition can build a safer world. Basic Books.
Rogowski, S. (2020). Social work: The rise and fall of a profession. Policy Press.
Toraif, N., & Mueller, J. (2023). Abolitionist social work. In D. Bailey & T. Mizrahi (Eds.), Encylopedia of social work. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.1553
