¹Swedish Defence Research Agency, Stockholm, Sweden

Correspondence: T Ritchey, Department for Technology Foresight and Assessment, Swedish Defence Research Agency, SE-172 90 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: ritchey@foi.se

Received November 2004; Accepted December 2005; Published online 15 March 2006.

Abstract

General morphological analysis (GMA) is a method for structuring and investigating the total set of relationships contained in multidimensional, usually non-quantifiable, problem complexes. Pioneered by Fritz Zwicky at the California Institute of Technology in the 1930s and 1940s, it relies on a constructed parameter space, linked by way of logical relationships, rather than on causal relationships and a hierarchal structure. During the past 10 years, GMA has been computerized and extended for structuring and analysing complex policy spaces, developing futures scenarios and modelling strategy alternatives. This article gives a historical and theoretical background to GMA as a problem structuring method, compares it with a number of other 'soft-OR' methods, and presents a recent application in structuring a complex policy issue. The issue involves the development of an extended producer responsibility (EPR) system in Sweden.