A Voss and Pike Casefile
Revision recap and comprehension questions
Every clue in the case is a piece of sociology in disguise. Use this table to connect the story to the chapter. Then play again and re-read the scenes with the theory in mind.
| Clue | Evidence | The sociology it carries |
|---|---|---|
| Clue A | The Programme | Goffman: front stage and backstage. The "I" trying to speak over the "Me" (Mead). Identity as performance (dramaturgy). |
| Clue B | The Voicemail | Front-stage self vs personal identity; the accent as a marker of class identity. Social identity vs personal identity (Marshall). |
| Clue C | The Dock Tag | Material culture and latent function (Merton): an object that says something other than its purpose. Class identity built on work (Crompton). |
| Clue D | The School File | Education as secondary socialisation; hidden curriculum (Jackson); Parsons and Bowles and Gintis. Mortification and resocialisation (Goffman); anticipatory socialisation. |
| Clue E | The Daughter's Alibi | Family as primary socialisation; gender identity: autonomous femininity, emphasised femininity, hegemonic masculinity (Connell). Surveillance as evidence (Foucault). |
| Clue F | The Paid Menace | Media as secondary socialisation: agenda-setting (Philo), fear, imitation and desensitisation (Potter). Folk devils; ethnic and youth "otherness". Labelling. |
| Clue G | The Mortgage | Business elite, wealth distribution, power. Weber's types of power; Lukes' three dimensions (deciding, preventing, removing from the agenda); ideology protecting the powerful. |
| Clue H | The Anonymous Donor | High and low culture; taste barriers and cultural hegemony; hybridisation (Bhangra). Backstage identity. Ethnicity as a socially constructed and negotiated identity. |
| Clue I | The Green Coat | Peer group as a reference group; retributive and marginalised masculinity; mortification in institutions. Also: surveillance from above and below. |
| Clue J | The Water Tray | Weber: rational-legal and charismatic authority; the usher obeys manner alone. Norms and roles: how a role is performed convincingly. |
| Clue K | The Speech | Primary vs secondary socialisation; the looking-glass self (Cooley); class identity as something made and taught. The "I" and the "Me" made public. |
| Clue L | The Records | Identity is constructed, not born (nature vs nurture). Feral children, and the argument that culture is taught. Invented identities as social constructions of reality. |
| Sections | Concepts to look for |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | Structure vs action (satellite and street corner); Meighan's "haunting"; formal social control (police tape); surveillance from above and below (Foucault). |
| 3-4 | Material and non-material culture; manifest and latent functions (Merton); status symbols; social class through occupation. |
| 5 | Nature vs nurture (Crane's "born to command" against "taught to"); imagined communities and the roles that structure a foyer; roles, role-sets. |
| 6 | Structuralist vs interactionist perspectives; structuration (Giddens): both matter. |
| 7-9 | Family as primary agency; invented traditions (Hobsbawm and Ranger); primary socialisation; gender identity; emphasised femininity and autonomous femininity; class markers in speech; role conflict. |
| 10-12 | Mass media effects: agenda-setting, fear of crime, imitation, desensitisation; folk devils; labelling; manufactured news. |
| 13-16 | Peer groups; retributive and marginalised masculinity; mortification and resocialisation; status exchange and interaction (Interactionism); formal vs informal control; the failure of coercive power. |
| 17-19 | Business elite; distribution of wealth; conspicuous consumption; Weber and Lukes on power; ideology; Foucault on surveillance and opaque power; social capital. |
| 20-22 | Religion: moral values, sanctions, functions; the tension between social roles and private truth; the "Me" vs the "I"; socialisation as making, not finding. |
| 23-25 | Education: formal and hidden curriculum; correspondence theory (Bowles and Gintis); role-sets; anticipatory socialisation; mortification; deed-poll identity change; qualifications as authority. |
| 26-28 | Ethnic identity; hybridisation (conventional and contemporary); taste barriers; high vs low culture; Weber on rational-legal authority; norms and roles. |
| 29-30 | Looking-glass self (Cooley); presentation of self (Goffman); functions of identity (Adams and Marshall); postmodern identity as shopping; roles as costume. |
| 31-32 | Identity as constructed; nature vs nurture; social construction of reality; how documents create and erase identities. |
| 33-35 | Evidence and theory; structure vs action; the "I" and the "Me"; roles and norms as building blocks of culture. |
| 36-38 | Rational-legal authority and credibility; how institutions decide whom to believe. |
| 37, 44, 45 | Structuration; the social construction of identity; postmodern and modernist identity: fixed or negotiated? |
| 39-43, 46-47 | Labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy; agenda-setting; primary socialisation; Lukes' three faces of power; ideology and hegemony; agency and structure. |
Which did you find? Each ending is tied to a concept. Try to reach every one.
Answer these using the story as your evidence and the chapter as your theory. Mark allocations follow the style of A-level questions. Your teacher has the indicative content.
Outline two differences between the Structuralist and Interactionist views of the relationship between the individual and society. [4 marks]
Using the story, explain how Giddens' Structuration theory tries to combine structure and action. [6 marks]
Crane says some people are "born to command a room". Using the case of feral children, explain one problem with this claim. [4 marks]
Explain how Mead's concepts of the "I" and the "Me" help make sense of Sir Edwin's planned speech. [6 marks]
Evaluate the view that identity is a performance (Goffman). Refer to at least two characters in your answer. [10 marks]
Identify and explain two differences between primary and secondary socialisation, using an example from the story for each. [4 marks]
Explain what the story shows about the hidden curriculum and the correspondence between school and work. [6 marks]
Assess the importance of the media as an agency of socialisation, using Halloran's Sentinel as an example. [6 marks]
Distinguish between formal and informal social control, giving one example of each from the story. [4 marks]
Explain the difference between roles, values and norms, using the role of "usher" or "headmaster" as your example. [4 marks]
Using Lukes' three dimensions of power, explain what Blackwood's cheque shows. [6 marks]
Explain how high culture and popular culture are used to maintain class boundaries, with reference to the Grand Lantern and Club Kaleidoscope. [6 marks]
Explain two ways class identity is shown in the story. [6 marks]
Using Connell's concepts, explain the masculine identities of Kez and Blackwood. [6 marks]
Explain why Anisa says "everyone is ethnic". [4 marks]
Explain what is meant by hybrid ethnic identities, using the Club Kaleidoscope as an example. [6 marks]
Explain one function of culture and one function of identity, using an example from the story for each. [6 marks]
Evaluate the view that, in postmodern societies, identities are chosen rather than given. Use the story as evidence. [10 marks]
"Identity is never finished; it is always negotiated." Discuss with reference to the ending you reached and one alternative ending. [12 marks]
Pick one suspect. Draw a spider diagram of their role-set, then write a paragraph explaining how they present themselves to each other person in it, and which agency of socialisation taught them the role.