The purpose of this article is to develop a reflection on professional intervention, based on an interpretation of the changes currently taking place. Therefore, a conceptual differentiation between the notions of social intervention and intervention in social settings is made, trying to define the challenges being faced by the disciplines and professions of the social sciences and the humanities; in particular, the situation of social work in Latin America is examined, by analyzing the accuracies and inaccuracies of the movement of reconceptualization, as a movement that criticizes professional formation and intervention. Thus the main potentialities and limitations of the profession are analyzed, in order to visualize the new challenges of professional intervention in the conceptualization and construction of intervention in social settings and in new contexts, before the complexity of social problems during the so-called era of crisis of modernity and globalization.