My brother Roger Penn, who has died aged 77, was an inquisitive sociologist and liked to challenge convention. His influences were neo-Ricardian economics, Weberian sociology and the Annales school in France, and he maintained a strong focus on empirical research.
Born in Lytham, Lancashire, to Olga (nee Johnson) and Sidney Penn, a mechanical engineer at the Atomic Energy Authority, in Preston, Roger went to Stratton grammar school, in Biggleswade, Bedfrodshire, and then Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied history and later social and political sciences, graduating in 1972.
