A Voss and Pike Casefile: The Early Days
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 Audit Draft | Marian separates private troubles, public problems and public issues, using the quay as her example. |
| Clue B | The Rail Requests | Three requests for a railing answered with "noted", "scheduled", "no budget" - and a reply turning a hazard into an "individual support plan". |
| Clue C | The Lamp Log | Alternate quay lamps switched off to save energy, leaving one lamp over the unfenced edge. |
| Clue D | The Problem Register | People ranked by friction and complaint volume; no lamp, railing or planning decision appears on it. |
| Clue E | The Licence | Keast is paid to license the register as an investment-readiness score. |
| Clue F | Marian's Notebook | Notes on Becker, Tombs and Whyte, and Marsland - and her plan to confront Keast at the quay. |
| Clue G | Albert's Account | An eighty-one-year-old witness whose evidence is pre-filed by a care form as 'confusion'. |
| Clue H | The Festival Programme | Opera and Shakespeare for the "fine arts", an "informal" lane by the bins for community stalls. |
| Clue I | The Key Log | A night guard's record of three hazard reports, and an alibi the police never checked. |
| Clue J | The Retainer | A twelve-month council contract offered to Ada the morning after the death. |
| Clue K | The Prospectus | A Global Quarter of standardised, franchise-ready "authentic" zones, with a cafe and almshouses marked for demolition. |
| Clue L | The Problem Streets | The Sentinel's map of 'problem streets' built from the register - and a quay that scores zero because nobody lives there. |
| Clue M | The Pass Log | Keast told Ada he left at 10.30pm by taxi; his pass enters the side door at 23:52. |
| Clue N | The Summons | Marian's email asking Keast to meet at the quay; he deleted his copy at 06:09. |
| Clue O | The Freewheel Lever | The power chair's freewheel lever found engaged - something only another person could have done. |
| Sections | Concepts to look for |
|---|---|
| 1-8 | Social problems versus sociological problems; private troubles, public problems and public issues (Mills); the disability example, and how an "accident" verdict turns a public issue into a private trouble. |
| 9-12 | The sociologist's role in social policy: Marsland's 'engaged' sociology, Mills's 'administrative decisions' critique, and sociology as a means of social control. |
| 13-16 | Social policy defined (Calvert and Calvert; Morris): problems, needs and conditions; how a budget turns definitions of problems into money, and how a research budget can become a retainer. |
| 17-20 | Global culture: hybridisation, Disneyization and McDonaldization; culture as a commodity; the licensing of a 'problem' score as a financial asset. |
| 21-24 | Intra-cultural diversity (age): the medicalisation and stigmatisation of old age, and the credibility of an old witness. |
| 25-27 | Intra-cultural diversity (class and gender): high culture versus popular culture; asynchronies (Scott) in who can attend a six o'clock consultation. |
| 28-30 | Intra-cultural diversity (ethnicity): the "Other White" minority, horizontal segregation, and labelling as a social problem. |
| 31-33 | The media and the definition of social problems: public outcry, problem maps, and the pre-prepared line. |
| 34-36 | Becker, Tombs and Whyte against Marsland; the five "voices" (class, age, gender, ethnicity, religion) and the diversity of religion within a "community". |
| 37-41 | Digital records and corroboration: pass logs, deleted emails and the weighing of paper against testimony. |
| 42-46 | The keystone: physical evidence overturns the 'individual accident' narrative; choosing whether to open with the people or the paper. |
| 47-50, 56 | Realist synthesis, and why a pattern is not proof. |
| 51-54 | Social problems as relative (Carter), co-option, and the private-trouble framing in action. |
| 55 | The fullest synthesis: Mills's public issue, the sociologist taking a side openly, and the panel's five voices heard from the inside. |
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.
Briefly explain the difference between a social problem and a sociological problem, using the quay as your example. [4 marks]
Using the concept of disability, explain why Adomaitiene's example matters to the distinction between social and sociological problems. [6 marks]
Using Mills's distinction, explain the difference between a private trouble, a public problem and a public issue, using the case of Marian's death as your example. [6 marks]
Using Calvert and Calvert's and Morris's definitions, explain what is meant by social policy. [4 marks]
Using Painter and Farrington's study, explain how sociological research can contribute to both a sociological and a social problem. [6 marks]
Evaluate Mills's argument that an 'unimaginative' view of sociology reduces it to facilitating administrative decisions, using Keast as your evidence. [8 marks]
Evaluate the view that sociologists should take the side of the underdog, using Becker, Tombs and Whyte, and Marsland. [10 marks]
Explain Murdock's argument that some behaviours are cultural universals, and give two examples of how they vary between societies. [4 marks]
Using the Mauritian example in the chapter, explain what is meant by 'cross-cultural' diversity. [4 marks]
Using Gans, Giddens and Brooks, explain how the festival programme (clue H) reflects the cultural stratification of high and popular culture. [6 marks]
Explain how age is socially constructed, using Albert Quayle's treatment by the council (clue G). [6 marks]
Using Dahrendorf's concept of life chances and Scott's concept of asynchronies, explain how gender affects participation in the council's consultation. [6 marks]
Using the chapter's data on ethnic minorities, explain the significance of Darek Kowal's situation. [6 marks]
Using McGuire and the UK Census data, explain why religion cannot be treated as a single, uniform category. [6 marks]
Using Dell's prospectus (clue K), explain the difference between cultural hybridisation and Disneyization. [6 marks]
Explain Sklair's three processes of global cultural development, giving one example for each from the case or the chapter. [6 marks]
Evaluate the claim that cultural globalisation creates convergence rather than diversity, using the Global Quarter as evidence. [8 marks]
"The council did not decide to let Marian die. It decided what counted as a problem, and the rest followed." Discuss, using at least three pieces of evidence. [10 marks]
"Catching the person responsible does not change how problems are defined." Discuss with reference to two endings. [10 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.