We analyze the dichotomy amenable/paradoxical in the context of (discrete, countable, unital) semigroups and corresponding semigroup rings. We consider also F{o}lners type characterizations of amenability and give an example of a semigroup whose semigroup ring is algebraically amenable but has no F{o}lner sequence. In the context of inverse semigroups $S$ we give a characterization of invariant measures on $S$ (in the sense of Day) in terms of two notions: $domain$ $measurability$ and $localization$. Given a unital representation of $S$ in terms of partial bijections on some set $X$ we define a natural generalization of the uniform Roe algebra of a group, which we denote by $mathcal{R}_X$. We show that the following notions are then equivalent: (1) $X$ is domain measurable; (2) $X$ is not paradoxical; (3) $X$ satisfies the domain F{o}lner condition; (4) there is an algebraically amenable dense *-subalgebra of $mathcal{R}_X$; (5) $mathcal{R}_X$ has an amenable trace; (6) $mathcal{R}_X$ is not properly infinite and (7) $[0] ot=[1]$ in the $K_0$-group of $mathcal{R}_X$. We also show that any tracial state on $mathcal{R}_X$ is amenable. Moreover, taking into account the localization condition, we give several C*-algebraic characterizations of the amenability of $X$. Finally, we show that for a certain class of inverse semigroups, the quasidiagonality of $C_r^*left(Xright)$ implies the amenability of $X$. The converse implication is false.
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