In this chapter, we consider the sociolinguistic aspects of the production and perception of approximants. Our aim is to review and discuss factors such as dialectal variation, social class, gender, ethnicity, multilingualism, and language contact. Specifically, we focus on laterals and rhotics as the locus of most sociolinguistic variation in approximants. We consider many kinds of rhotics (including some non-approximant rhotics) to provide a holistic account of variation in these sound classes. Rhotics and laterals are articulatorily complex, requiring multiple lingual, and sometimes labial, gestures for production. For this reason, there are many axes along which approximant production, and therefore also perception, can vary.