Circular Economy and MOOCs

In this chapter, we attempt to discuss the economics of education according to the supply of massive open online courses (MOOCs) that deal with the circular economy (CE). The thread of reasoning starts from a brief historical reflection on the economics of education, pointing out that the major contributions in this field of study maintain the characteristics of the self-interested expectations of the economic agents (basically: personal income maximization). The economics of education, in this respect, receives a further boost from the organization of MOOCs in economics. With the spread of CE—and the epistemological obstacles it poses to economists—the utilitarian reasons of individual nature give way to objectives in which common goods become the targets of the maximization analysis. Eschewing the logic of human capital maximization, mass education acquires a social character. As such, it creates a closer link between CE and social massive open online courses (sMOOCs), outlining a framework in which the specific contents of the arguments require definite characteristics of teaching models.