Four scenes and an epilogue: Autoethnography of a critical social work agenda regarding poverty

'Back and forth autoethnographers gaze. . . outward on social and cultural aspects of their personal experience; then. . inward, exposing a vulnerable self that is moved by and may move through, refract, and resist cultural interpretations' (Ellis and Bochner, 2000: 739). The article presents an autoethnography in a format of four scenes and an epilogue. The scenes move from personal family memories, through memories of first professional encounters with a 'poor' woman client, and an encounter with volunteers from a human rights organization that fight to eradicate poverty, to an educational moment as a social work lecturer who guides her students in their search for their own way to work with people in poverty. The epilogue aims to connect the four scenes and to point at the personal, social, cultural, and political roots of a critical social work agenda regarding poverty.