M-Shaped+society


 * Definition **

“M-Shaped society” refers to a new economic structure with polarized wealth distribution. The middle class is assimilated to be the lower or upper class. So the social structure of different classes can be presented graphically as the letter M, which means the middle part (stands for the middle class, which used to be the major composition of population) is disappearing and the two extremes have disproportionately large amount of people. The M-Shaped society is not an ideal society, and the concept is usually discussed with some indices such as unemployment rate, birth rate, divorce rate, suicide incidence, household saving, low-income households…etc. (Hsueh & Ku, 2009, p49-51) Generally speaking, the concept is used to describe the social phenomenon in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Although the term is used regionally, it echoes a worldwide concern of the economic recession at the end of the 20th century. The struggling situation of the middle class is not a crisis limited to the East Asia, the middle -class people in Europe and the US have new features as well. The economy in East Asia may have its own particularity, but under the trend of globalization, the M-Shaped society phenomenon is tightly linked with the new order of global economy (Carmichael, 2011; Goven, 2012; Luce, 2010; Magaridge, 2011).

The concept “M-Shaped society” is coined by Japanese management guru Kenichi Ohmae. It was first appeared in his book published in 2006 “The Rising Impact of the Lower-Middle Class Population in Japan.” The idea is introduced to Taiwanese by the magazine “Business Weekly” in the same year, and the report of Business Weekly implied that Taiwan is on its way to be an M-Shaped society (Kuang, 2006). The concept explains the “one Taiwan, two worlds” phenomenon, reflects how people struggle to make ends meet, and echoes people’s fear to be the “new poor” or “working poor” class. The concept immediately caught the attention of the public and became one of the most widely-used terms in the media.


 * Intensive Usage of the Term in the Media **

Regardless of people’s familiarity to M-Shaped society, the term was not probed academically and systematically as much as it deserves. Some researchers tried to develop tentative indices to measure M-Shaped society, such as Balance Index and M-ratio (Hsueh and Ku, 2009, p52-53). Compared with a rather conservative way of using this term in the academia, the term is almost abused in media content.

Google News yields almost 50,000 results if we search for news reports related to the M-Shaped society after 2006. Apple Daily, one of the major newspapers in Taiwan, has 272 pieces of news with the term since 2006. As long as the topic is related to the contrast between the rich and the poor, the M-Shaped society is mentioned to explain the gap. As for now, the usage of the term in the mass media does not stick to Ohmae’s original concern about the disappearing middle class, but seems to explain any kind of extreme situations. Any unbalanced situation can be easily described as “M-Shaped.” For example, in July 6, 2012, [|a news report from Central News Agency in Taiwan] said that the media literacy education is M-Shaped because students and the young generation have more advanced media literacy ability if compared with the general public.


 * How the Term is Linked with Taiwanese Social Phenomenon **

No matter how people and the media use the term, it indeed reflects the challenging and frustrating situation for the younger generation to lead a decent life in Taiwan. The growing GDP reflects the wealth gained by rich people, which does not mean the improvement of life quality for middle-lower class. In Taiwan, the annual misery index from 2008 to 2011 are respectively 7.67,4.98, 6.17, and 5.81. These rates are higher if compared with those of last decade or even before. As people falling out of the middle class array, there are four mental phases they will undergo when they find themselves becoming the “working poor” or “new poor” class. First, they try to cover it. Second, they persuade themselves that things will be better in the future. Then they deny the reality if they find it impossible to rejoin middle class. Finally, they segregate themselves outside the previous community (Kuang, 2006).

For new poor class, the painful feelings does not come from becoming poor per se, but due to the gap in which people cannot accept the reality that they are poor people and still want to retain the consumption habits and stay in the previous community. Their painful feelings can be understood with the psychological term “cognitive dissonance" (Kuang, 2006). The sensational media reports and intensive consumption news may deteriorate the situation by creating fetish discourse environment.

Written by Wei-Fen Chen (July 2012).

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 * References **

American Middle Class. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from []

Carmichael, M. (2011) What’s Left of the Middle Class is More Diverse, Hard Working—and Still Shrinking. Advertising Age, 82 (37) 4-5.

Govan, F (2012 Jul 21) The Pain in Spain: Recession and the Middle Class. The Telegraph. Retrieved from []

Hsueh, J. & Ku,Y (2009). Social Changes and Social Policy in Taiwan: New Poverty, M-shaped Society and Policy Implications. //International Journal of Japanese Sociology//, 18, 47-59.

Kuang, W. (2006 Oc t 16) Here Comes the M-Shaped Society. Business Weekly, 986. Retrieved from []

Luce, E. (2010, Jul 30) The Crisis of Middle-Class America. FT Magazine, retrieved from [|http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1a8a5cb2-9ab2-11df-87e6-00144feab49a.html#axzz21Glxp7Ad]

Magaridge, Dale. (2011). Along Recession Road. //Columbia Journalism Review//, 50(3), 34-39

M-Shaped Society. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from []

Ohmaa, K. (2006)The Impact of Rising Lower-Middle Class Population in Japan. Tokyo: Kodan-sha Publishing Company.

Ouchi, W. (1984). The M-Form Society: How American Teamwork Can Recapture the Competitive Edge. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.

Ouchi, W. (1984) The M-Form Society. //Human Resource Management//, 23(2), 191-213.

Peck, D. (2011 Sep ) Can the Middle Class Be Saved? Atlantic Magazine. Retrieved from []