Abram de Swaan is Distinguished Research Professor of Social Science at the University of Amsterdam and Chairman of the Amsterdam School of Social Science Research. Professor de Swaan was voted the “most prominent sociologist” in a poll of Dutch colleagues. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences and the Academia Europea and he received the royal appointment to the “Sigmund Freud chair” of the Academia Europea de Yuste, Spain. A prolific author, he has written over 100 articles and book chapters and 20 books, including most recently, The World Language: A Political Sociology and Political Economy of Language.