The concept of sustainability necessarily entails the question, "What ought to be sustained?" In other words, sustainability is the site of a debate over the proper relationship of humankind to the nonhuman world. This course will examine sustainability from this perspective. It will begin by surveying the various and sometimes conflicting ways the term is used in political, ethical, environmental, and institutional contexts. Criticisms of and alternatives to dominant views of sustainability will be considered, including agrarian, environmental justice, and political ecological perspectives.