The present volume emphasizes commonalities of approaches to code-switching. Despite the theoretically and methodologically eclectic character of code-switching studies, it seems feasible to bring together various approaches to code-switching spanning all three perspectives as long as they meet the criterion of allowing for social explanations. This is the point of view that we took while editing this volume. This volume also seeks to widen the empirical basis of the study of code-switching by including a richly diverse range of contact settings encompassing countries such as Cameroon, Hong Kong, Suriname, Burkina Faso, The Dutch Antilles, French Guiana, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, United Kingdom, South Africa, Luxembourg and Australia, and using primary data from languages representing a broad variety of linguistic types and affiliations (Niger-Congo, Sinitic, Germanic, Indic, Austronesian, Pama-Nyungan, Celtic, as well as Afro-Caribbean and Pacific English-lexifier Creoles and Mixed Languages).