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Paper short abstract

Microalgae has the potential to harm and to heal, to suffocate or to oxygenate. This paper explores the curious ambiguities of microalgae in relation to the techno-scientific narratives that announce its recent emergence as a ‘sustainable solution’.

Paper long abstract

Microalgae is an ambiguous actor in the making of socio-ecological worlds. It has the potential to harm and to heal, to poison and to feed, to suffocate aquatic organisms and to provide carbon sinks for oxygen-dependant species. Over the last ten years, the diverse aquatic species of microscopic, unicellular living organisms, also known as microalgae, have been increasingly put to work as a ‘sustainable solution’ for a multitude of contemporary socio-ecological challenges. Scientific and technological narratives celebrate the transformative potentials of microalgae, for instance, as ‘omega 3 solutions’, facilitators of a circular economy and useful photosynthetic microorganisms in carbon sequestration. Taking a closer look at the hype, this paper traces the recent techno-scientific narratives of an emerging algae sustainability regime and situates them within the curious ambiguities of a microalgal world. By doing so, it examines the cultural conditions under which micro-algae comes to be a new green technology, and questions the neat picture of sustainable solutions. This enquiry into the representations and discourses that currently dominate an imaginary of sustainable microalgae production, prepares the ground for an affect-informed and sensorial ethnography on how this latest green technology impacts local communities, ecologies and microalgae species themselves.