The term ‘linguistic ethnography’ captures a growing body of research by scholars who combine linguistic and ethnographic approaches in order to understand how social and communicative processes operate in a range of settings and contexts. To date, linguistic ethnography has been described as an umbrella term: an area of shared interests where established research traditions interact (see Tusting and Maybin 2007; Rampton 2007a; Jacobs and Slembrouck 2010; Maybin and Tusting 2011). A great deal of research has been undertaken under this umbrella (see, for instance, the work of Jan Blommaert, Angela Creese, Marilyn Martin-Jones, Ben Rampton and Celia Roberts, and Table 1.1, below), building on the foundational work of scholars such as Frederick Erickson, John Gumperz and Dell Hymes, all of whom are cited throughout the collection. However, linguistic ethnography has yet to reach a position where we can claim it to be a clearly defined approach. Linguistic ethnographic work is dispersed among many different disciplinary areas and, currently, there is no dedicated journal to bring work together and support its development. We therefore thought it timely to publish a selection of contemporary linguistic ethnography work in one collection. Our aim is to take stock of linguistic ethnography: to invite readers to examine the breadth of disciplinary and methodological currents converging in linguistic ethnography, identify intelligible threads and consider opportunities and challenges.