General Morphological Analysis: A general method for
non-quantified modelling
Fritz Zwicky pioneered the development of morphological
analysis (MA) as a method for investigating the totality of
relationships contained in multi-dimensional, usually non-
quantifiable problem complexes. During the past two decades, MA
has been extended and applied in the area of futures studies and
for structuring and analysing complex policy spaces. This
article outlines the fundamentals of the morphological approach
and describes recent applications in policy analysis.
"... within the final and true world image everything is
related to everything, and nothing can be discarded a priori as
being unimportant." (Fritz Zwicky: Discovery, Invention,
Research through the Morphological Approach.)
Note: The original article contained diagrams and
pictures of morphological fields, which are not available in
this text format. The original article can be downloaded from
the Swedish Morphological Society at: www.swemorph.com/ma.html.
INTRODUCTION
General Morphological analysis (MA) was developed by Fritz
Zwicky - the Swiss astrophysicist and aerospace scientist based
at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) - as a
method for structuring and investigating the total set of
relationships contained in multi-dimensional, non-quantifiable,
problem complexes (Zwicky 1966, 1969).
Zwicky applied this method to such diverse fields as the
classification of astrophysical objects, the development of jet
and rocket propulsion systems, and the legal aspects of space
travel and colonization. He founded the Society for
Morphological Research and advanced the "morphological approach"
for some 40 years, between the early 1930's until his death in
1974.
More recently, morphological analysis has been extended and
applied by a number of researchers in the U.S.A and Europe in
the field of policy analysis and futures studies (Rhyne 1981,
1995a, 1995b; Coyle 1994, 1995, 1996; Ritchey 1997, 1998,
Ritchey, Stenstr