Sociolinguistics and Social Theory brings together new critical overviews of the interface between language, social structure and social action. A wide range of theoretical and methodological traditions are represented: variationist and ethnographic sociolinguistics, conversation and interaction analysis, discourse analysis, social semiotics and ideological linguistics, as well as sociology and social theory itself. The book proposes a new agenda for sociolinguistic theory, in the broadest sense, and debates the theoretical grounding of different research methods. Contributors include Frederick Erickson, David Graddol, Christian Heath, Monica Heller, John Heritage, Gunther Kress, Per Linell, Michael Lynch, Miriam Meyerhoff, Lesley Milroy, Jonathan Potter, Ben Rampton, Celia Roberts, Richard Watts, John Wilson and Ruth Wodak.