Rather than offer up a catalogue of ready-reference definitions of ‘science’, ‘research’, ‘social work’ and so on, this first chapter is framed around a very selective set of questions, with the hope that they will provide suspension lines that, unlike the unfortunate Millennium Bridge in London, will not oscillate unduly. In doing so, we will encounter at least as many questions as we answer. For the most part, these will be left where they lie and taken up in later chapters of the book. Some of this chapter and parts of Chapter Two are among the slightly more demanding parts of the book. As most of the chapters can be read as free-standing pieces, these opening chapters could be held back until later in the book. Chapters One, Two and Eight bookend the writing, and could be read together. Chapters One and Two are about the nature and purpose of social work research. The distinction is not a cut-and-dried one. When we come to talk about the nature of social work or research we often find ourselves answering by saying what its purpose is. Take, for example, the opening mission statement of the European Social Work Research Association: