The stated purpose of the Sage handbook of sociolinguistics to provide historical and theoretical context for sociolinguistics, foundational topics, and the application of sociolinguistics. It also aims to attempt to deal with “boundaries” in sociolinguistics or the interdisciplinary nature of sociolinguistics by including new issues such as globalization and migration, and to correct an Anglo-American bias present in current handbooks. Although the editors suggest they weren't successful in achieving that aim, the handbook does indeed provide significant voices and research from other countries. The handbook consists of thirty-nine chapters divided into six parts: Part 1, “History of sociolinguistics;” Part 2, “Sociolinguistics and social theory;” Part 3, “Language variation and change;” Part 4, “Interaction;” Part 5, “Multilingualism and contact;” and Part 6, “Applications.” The editors do not explicitly state who the collection is directed at or how they intended readers to use it. It certainly would serve as a reference book, since each chapter is short enough to quickly gain an understanding of the topic but full of references for the reader to explore to gain more in-depth knowledge. Individual chapters would also serve well in a classroom to orient students to particular theories. The name index and subject index are especially handy.

Part 1 complements and expands on the introduction. This section provides profiles of key founding sociolinguistics scholars: Charles Ferguson and Joshua Fishman (Bernard Spolsky), William Labov (Kirk Hazen), Basil Bernstein (Gabrielle Ivinson), Dell Hymes (Barbara Johnstone & William Marcellino), and John Gumperz (Cynthia Gordon). These chapters provide details about the historical background, training, and influences of these scholars while also explaining their lasting contributions to the field. Presenting the background and fine points about key influential scholars in sociolinguistics plays a critical role in learning about and understanding sociolinguistics. For students and scholars new to the field, Part 1 provides crucial details on the assumptions and history of sociolinguistic theory, topics that often are overlooked.

Part 2 addresses sociological theory and how it is taken up by sociolinguistics. Topics include “Social stratification” (Christine Mallinson), “Social constructionism” (Anthea Irwin), “Symbolic interactionism” (Shari Kendall), “Ethnomethodology and membership categorization analysis” (Robert Garot & Tim Berard), “Power and discourse” (José Antonio Flores Farfán & Anna Holzscheiter), “Global theory and migration” (Stef Slembrouck), and “Semiotics” (Paul Kockelman). There is special effort on the part of several authors to address the notion of reflexivity within the field and to bridge gaps between sociolinguistics and sociology. In addition, there are concise accounts of theories and frameworks put forward by important scholars such as Pierre Bourdieu, Charles Sanders Peirce, and Erving Goffman. Many examples of explanatory research are provided.

Part 3 focuses on key components of the variationist paradigm, including “Individuals and Communities” (Norma Mendoza-Denton), “Social class” (Robin Dodsworth), “Social network” (Eva Vetter), “Sociolinguistic approaches to language change: Phonology” (Paul Kerswill), “Social structure, language contact and language change” (Peter Trudgill), “Sociolinguistics and formal linguistics” (Gregory Guy), “Attitudes, ideology and awareness” (Tore Kristiansen), “Historical Ssciolinguistics” (Terttu Nevalainen), and “Fieldwork methods in language variation” (Walt Wolfram). Mendoza-Denton describes individual vs. group repertoires and details the perspective that takes the individual rather than the group as the focus of research. She also discusses problems with the notion of speech community via a strong historical background and examples of research. A history of sociolinguistic exploration of social class is provided by Dodsworth, including fine details about Labov's assignment of class in his NYC study. She critiques the use of class categories and provides alternatives to social class categories through approaches taken to class in discourse analysis. Kerswill describes phonological change in the sociolinguistic context in terms of its historical place in sociolinguistics via examples of historical sound change. Vetter provides historical background to the social network concept and describes different theoretical assumptions and methodologies. Trudgill takes on linguistic typology and suggests that certain kinds of social structures may be associated with particular types of linguistic variation. Guy addresses the connection of sociolinguistics to formal linguistics and highlights the intersections of the two. Kristiansen describes how attitudes, awareness, and ideology topics influence language change, summarizing and critiquing Labovian variationism in addition to providing evidence from Danish for the importance of independently establishing evidence for covert values. Wolfram describes issues surrounding identifying a community of study, selecting participants, and gathering data.

Part 4 describes a variety of interactional contexts and key background information regarding history and important scholars associated with those areas. Concepts are demonstrated with data, and central conflicts within the field are presented. A key theme in this section is the importance of accompanying the description of a phenomenon with a proposal about why it happens. In addition, sections provide tools or analytical approaches for the field. Topics covered include “Face to face interaction” (Helga Kotthoff), “Doctor-patient communication” (Florian Menz), “Discourse and schools” (Luisa Martín Rojo), “Courtroom discourse” (Susan Erlich), “Analyzing conversation” (Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen & Diana Slade), “Narrative analysis” (Alexandra Georgakopoulou), “Gender and interaction” (Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou), and “Interaction and the media” (Brigitta Busch & Petra Pfisterer). Martin Rojo explains how linguistic practice produces inequality in school and reminds researchers of pitfalls such as essentialism and neglecting the sources of inequality in the classroom when describing inequality in that context. A breakdown of ways of doing conversation analysis and tools for analysis, prefaced by background on what conversation is, are presented by Matthiessen & Slade. Two ways of doing narrative analysis (Labovian and social interactional) are the focus for Georgakopoulou. The interactional-type narrative is privileged here because Labovian-style narrative is well-described elsewhere, but the chapter includes a careful critique of Labovian narrative analysis, and approaches proceding from it are described. Pavlidou describes key achievements in gender and interaction, keeping in mind the “tensions and debates” that have been present in the field. Busch & Pfisterer present a variety of approaches to language and the media (e.g. multilingualism, language planning, texts) and tools for the analysis of language and the media.

Part 5 includes “Societal bilingualism” (Mark Sebba), “Code-switching/mixing” (Peter Auer), “Language policy and planning” (Anne-Claude Berthoud & Georges Lüdi), “Language endangerment” (Julia Sallabank), and “Global Englishes” (Alastair Pennycook). Sebba describes methods and methodological issues and diglossia and provides several examples. Auer highlights terminological issues in the field and provides examples to illustrate some fundamental definitions. Berthoud and Lüdi draw on examples from the Dylan Research Project to describe how language policy is carried out in the private and higher education sectors and the issues that arise in those contexts. Pennycook focuses on aspects of globalization to demonstrate the impact of and issues raised by English around the world.

Part 6 covers “Forensic linguistics” (Malcolm Coulthard, Tim Grant, & Krzysztof Kredens), “Language teaching and language assessment” (Constant Leung), “Guidelines for non-discriminatory language use” (Marlis Hellinger), “Language, migration and human rights” (Ingrid Piller & Kimie Takahashi), and “Literacy studies” (David Barton & Carmen Lee). Coulthard, Grant, & Kredens explain that forensic linguistics generally consists of the application of linguistics to “written legal texts [and] spoken legal practices and the provision of evidence for criminal and civil investigations” (529) and give examples to demonstrate such applications. Ideas about “language in use” have been incorporated into language teaching and assessment, and Leung provides examples of curriculum development and classroom teaching. A central focus of this chapter is the impact of the Communicative Language Teaching approach and systemic functional linguistics. With regard to nondiscriminatory language use, Hellinger describes the background, cognitive effects, and implementation of nondiscriminatory guidelines, in addition to attitudes about such guidelines and their effects on language change. Piller & Takahashi describe the effects of language and migration on human rights, discussing the effects of the inability to use a particular language, for example. Barton and Lee highlight the role of language and communication in the domains of employment and health. Literacy studies focuses on the importance of written text studies in a “textually-mediated social world.”

This handbook brings together the range of work taking place in contemporary sociolinguistics while being careful to map the history of the discipline. Understanding how the field has developed is, of course, crucial in fully appreciating and using the innovations of the field. Chapters also grapple with issues that are challenging to sociolinguistics. Working within paradigms of globalization and migration, for example, requires careful attention to linguistic detail in a context that is, by its very nature, always expanding and changing.

The Cambridge handbook of sociolinguistics aims to stand out in a crowded field of similar handbooks by providing a broad range of topics in sociolinguistics and through the inclusion of anthropological and social psychological perspectives. For example, the inclusion of a chapter on signed languages, an often overlooked subject, is a welcome addition to this handbook. The intended audience for this text is students and scholars outside of sociolinguistics. The book aims to provide “authoritative and detailed, yet accessible, overviews” (xi). While it is very accessible, several chapters present unique perspectives on their topics, and as such, are not ideal for a beginner but better suited for scholars or students who have a more advanced understanding of sociolinguistics. This handbook has five parts: Part 1, “Foundations of sociolinguistics;” Part 2, “Interaction, style and discourse;” Part 3, “Social and regional dialectology;” Part 4, “Multilingualism and contact;” and Part 5, “Applied linguistics.”

Part 1 includes an introduction by the editor (Rajend Mesthrie) with a summary of all the chapters. Ch. 2, “Power, social diversity, and language” (John Baugh), highlights key studies on language, power, and diversity and the complexity of social diversity. The author also points to the pan-global phenomenon of wealth and power ideologies associated with standard varieties and linguistic discrimination. Ch. 3, “Linguistic anthropology: The study of language as a non-neutral medium” (Alessandro Duranti), takes the perspective of “language as a non-neutral medium” as a basic unifying understanding among linguistic anthropologists and considers how this idea plays a role in theories and research in linguistic anthropology. Ch. 4, “The social psychology of language: A short history” (W. Peter Robinson & Abigail Locke), provides a description of the positive achievements of social psychology of language studies but also the negative aspects that need correction. The principal research questions of the social psychology of language are presented through exemplary studies. Ch. 5, “Orality and literacy in sociolinguistics” (Lowry Hemphill), explicates the key differences in the characteristics and social purposes of written and oral texts and provides examples, with a focus on children's acquisition of literacy. Ch. 6, “Sign language” (Robert Bayley & Ceil Lucas), describes key sociolinguistic themes in sign language including regional variation, ethnicity, bilingualism, discourse analysis, and policy planning. A section on attitudes to ASL as a viable language includes a history of the evolution of attitudes to ASL. The chapter also suggests directions for future research in this emerging subfield.

Part 2 begins with Ch. 7, “Conversation and interaction” (Cynthia Gordon), which describes different approaches to discourse with a focus on the Goffmanian research tradition. It also describes characteristics of conversation such as its interactional organization and its collaborative, ritualistic, cultural, and social action-oriented nature. In addition, techniques for data collection and analysis are presented. Ch. 8, “Pragmatics and discourse” (Jan Blommaert), presents a short history of pragmatics in order to demonstrate its place in facilitating the integration of discourse analysis into a variety of sociolinguistic-oriented fields. A strong focus of the chapter is the difficulty with “the strong textual and linguistic orientation of discourse-analytical approaches” (127) and the lack of attention to sociolinguistic variation in mainstream discourse analysis. The author suggests that multimodal discourse analysis presents a “theoretical innovation” (137) that addresses the problem of emphasis on texts. Ch. 9, “The sociolinguistics of style” (Nikolas Coupland), presents a short history of style in linguistics and sociolinguistics and various concepts of “style.” Special attention is given to audience design, persona, and performance. Ch. 10, “Language, social class, and status” (Gregory Guy), describes the sociolinguistic understanding of how and why social class distinctions are made with language. The author outlines the challenges of defining social class and summarizes research that underlies the current understanding of what linguistic social class distinction looks like. He describes the relationship between class and language change in addition to explaining the importance of research on linguistic class differentiation for linguistic theory. Ch. 11, “Language and region” (William Kretzschmar), presents a discussion of the key concept in cultural geography of spatial perception. He also raises the issue of scale dependency and illustrates the caveats of perception and scale dependency (e.g. what is a “native speaker” of a region?) with examples from the literature and his field site of Roswell, Georgia. Ch. 12, “Language and place” (Barbara Johnstone), reviews the role and meaning of “place” in sociolinguistics over time and how its relationship to language has been influenced by significant events and movements. The evolution of the concept of place in sociolinguistics is illustrated with examples and emphasizes the complexity of the relationship between place and language. Ch. 13, “Language, gender and sexuality” (Natalie Schilling), highlights the complexity of the relationship between gender and language. The author presents the evolution of the treatment of gender in sociolinguistics, demonstrates key concepts with examples, and reviews some of the most recent sociolinguistic research involving gender. Ch. 14, “Language and ethnicity” (Carmen Fought), demonstrates that the relationship between ethnic identity and language is very strong and also very complex. Key issues in ethnicity and language, including language as a resource for demonstrating ethnic identity, the interaction of ethnicity and other social features, and directions for future research, are discussed.

Part 4 begins with Ch. 15, “Multilingualism” (Ana Deumert), which provides a description of what multilingualism is and the distribution and nature of multilingualism across the globe. These concepts are demonstrated with examples. The relationship between multilingualism and multiculturalism is also addressed. Ch. 16, “Pidgins and creoles” (Silvia Kouwenberg & John Victor Singler), focuses on the difficulty in defining “pidgin” and “creole” and the principal issues in the field, namely the hypotheses about processes that lead to contact languages and linguistic variation within creoles. Ch. 17, “Code-switching” (Peter Muysken), describes the difficult issue of defining code-switching and presents the social and linguistic organization of code-switching demonstrated with examples from the literature. Ch. 18, “Language maintenance, shift and endangerment” (Nicholas Ostler), describes what factors play a role in language maintenance, the causes of language shift, and what is at stake in language loss. Ch. 19, “Colonization, globalization, and the sociolinguistics of World Englishes” (Edgar Schneider), presents the historical background of colonization and the spread of English and a classification of World Englishes. Examples from the literature are provided to illustrate these concepts in addition to directions for future research. Ch. 20, “Language planning and language policy” (James Tollefson), also presents a historical perspective by providing a description of the typical practices in language planning and policy (LPLP). The author describes “approaches” to LPLP such as world systems, ecology of language, and governmentality and describes how discourse analysis and ethnography have been used to analyze LPLP. Clear definitions of domain specific terms used and key scholars in the field are also highlighted. Ch. 21, “Sociolinguistics and the law” (Diana Eades), describes legal contexts where sociolinguistic research is undertaken such as courtrooms and police and lawyer interviews. She highlights the importance of the notions of entextualization and power in this field. Ch. 22, “Language and the media” (Susan McKay), identifies three prominent ways of studying language and the media: semiotics, critical discourse analysis, and conversation analysis. Different genres of media discourse are surveyed and their analysis is discussed. Ch. 23, “Language in education” (Christopher Stroud & Kathleen Heugh), describes the serious and multiple challenges facing language education. The chapter focuses on key issues for language education caused by globalization and ideas for the direction of language education in this new global environment.

The diversity of contemporary sociolinguistics makes definitive handbooks almost impossible. Rather, handbooks can be understood as reflecting the priorities at a particular point in time in the ever-changing landscape of the field. This book captures an important moment, where sociolinguistics looks back on its own history and forward into the global context and also into some of the most pressing issues of language and social justice. While this might not be the best place for a novice to begin, it is certainly a good place for advanced students and scholars interested in sociolinguistics to come.