We open this chapter by distinguishing different ways we can understand the purpose of social work research, giving examples from the literature. Having recognised a range of appropriate purposes for doing research, we briefly consider the consequence of this for how we deal with the tensions between these purposes. We follow this with a more detailed case example from the work of the reformist evaluation scholar, Ernest House.

From there we will consider how the presence of multiple purposes, sometimes in tension with one another, raises the question of how the purposes of social work research are or should be taken forward by collaborative, cooperative work. While collaboration may seem an obvious virtue, we will see that its achievement is not straightforward. One of the difficulties stems from how best to understand the relationship between social work in the academy and social work in the ‘outside world’. We outline how best to understand the role of social work in the academy, and draw the chapter together by suggesting the benefits of borrowing from debates in sociology to develop the idea of a ‘public social work’.