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