Short abstract:

This paper navigates the intricate terrain and knowledge politics of microbial life by discussing microbes’ dual role as both threats and allies to (human) health. I ask how different microbial knowledges are enacted, produced and negotiated in strategies against antimicrobial resistance.

Long abstract:

Microbes profoundly influence life on and around Earth, embodying both peril and promise. On the one hand, they can cause pandemics, drive antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and thereby pose existential threats to modern medicine. This dystopian vision and the associated knowledge contrasts sharply with an emerging narrative that perceives microbes as indispensable allies to health, on the other hand. The exploration of the microbiome unveils a plethora of microbial contributions to (more-than-)human health, challenging conventional perceptions of pathogens.

My paper discusses this double logic of microbes as pathogens and health agents and the way they shape scientific knowledge production and societal imaginaries. Key to the investigation is the recognition that diverse assumptions about microbes and microbial practices shape knowledges around health, illness, life, and death. To explore the intricate interplay of knowledge politics in these microbial paradigms as indicated above, I present two case studies: the first delves into foundational research in molecular life sciences, probing the development of novel treatments against multi-drug resistant bacteria. The second scrutinizes phage therapy, heralded as a revolutionary approach to combat resistances through microbes and thereby opening up a different knowledge dimension on microbes as drugs. Both cases are situated within laboratory environments and offer insights into distinct, but not opposing knowledge formations. Through these cases, I illustrate the production of microbial knowledge politics, particularly highlighting the microbes’ agency in these processes and how they intervene in knowledge practices and politics.