Offers a survey of research trends in sociolinguistics around the world. This work focuses on traditional variationist sociolinguistics and on the areas of bi- and multilingualism together with diglossia and code-switching, language and culture, language and power and language planning.

Part I: Americas 1. Sociolinguistics in the United States of America, Kirk Hazen 2. Sociolinguistics in Canada, Elaine Gold 3. Sociolinguistics in Mexico: defining new agendas, José Antonio Flores Farfán 4. The Sociolinguistics of Indigenous Languages in South America, Serafin Coronel-Molina and Viviana Quinteros 5. Sociolinguistics of the Caribbean, Valerie Youssef Part II: Asia 6. Sociolinguistic Research in China, Minglang Zhou 7. Sociolinguistics in South Asia, Probal Dasgupta and Madhavi Sardesai 8. Japan, Nanette Gottlieb 9. Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, David Bradley 10. Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Lionel Wee 11. A Sociolinguistic profile of Turkey, Northern Cyprus and other Turkic states in Central Asia, Yasemin Bayyurt 12. The Caucasus, Victor A. Friedman 13. Sociolinguistics in the Iranian World, William Beeman Part III: Australasia 14. Australia, Peter Collins 15. New Zealand, Jen Hay and Margaret MacLagan 16. The South Pacific, Richard Benton and France Mugler 17. A Sociolinguistic Sketch of New Guinea, Mark Donohue Part IV: Africa and the Middle East 18. Sociolinguistics in South Africa – a critical overview of current research, Raj Mesthrie 19. Sociolinguistic Studies of West and Central Africa, Bruce Connell and David Zeitlyn 20. East Africa, Christina M. Higgins 21. Israeli Sociolinguistics: From Hebrew Hegemony to Israeli Plurilingualism, Zhanna Burstein-Feldman, Alek Epstein, Nina Kheimets, Shulamith Kopeliovich, Dafna Yitzhaki and Joel Walters 22. Arabic Sociolinguistics in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Catherine Miller and Dominique Caubet Part V: Europe 23. German speaking area, Winifred V. Davies 24. Sociolinguistics in the Dutch language area in Europe, Jeroen Darquennes 25. Sociolinguistics in the Nordic Region, Sally Boyd 26. The British Isles, Jane Stuart-Smith and Bill Haddican 27. French speaking area, Nadine Di Vito 28. Italy, Mair Parry 29. Spain and Portugal, David Atkinson, Mercedes Bengoechea and Sandi Michele de Oliveira 30. Sociolinguistics in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, Miklós Kontra, Jirí Nekvapil and Agnieszka Kielkiewicz-Janowiak 31. The Balkans, Robert D Greenberg 32. Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Victoria Gulida 33. The Development of Sociolinguistics in the Baltic States, Ina Druviete