The study of the social significance of linguistic variation has focused on the patterning of use of variants within communities, whether through large-scale survey studies or through more localized ethnographic studies. While such studies tell us something about the local meaning of variables, they do not explain how these local meanings connect to the larger social order, nor do they explain how these meanings play out across communities. Without this piece, we have no coherent explanation of the systematic social nature of the spread of linguistic influence and change. Based on a series of ethnographic studies of variation in adolescent communities across an urban-suburban continuum, this talk will bring together patterns of variation across this continuum and within each local community. By showing the connections among the age of a variable, its geographic distribution, and its role in local sociolinguistic practice, I will show how social meaning in variation is constructed in the intersection between the local social order and the broader socio-geographic context.