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construction of a translocal space. 28 This is consistent with all media that open up
(visual or audial) virtual representations of foreign places, from newspapers to
phones, destabilizing the concept of locality and the border between the public and
the private. 29
We turn now to three cases that illustrate some key distinctions in the ways places
are mediated. First, we take a closer look at how the local sports team strives to
uphold a local identification even when participating in wide spirals of mediations.
Second, while having a physical location, film and cinema appear to be interpreted
as less strictly tied to the particular place of Solna, providing examples of relatively
more deterritorialized activities. In the last section, we present individual visitors who
in everyday life use various imaginative tactics to bridge the gap between anchorage
and mobility.

THE LOCAL TEAM
Solna Centre’s location near the Råsunda soccer stadium, home arena for the AIK
team, has been an important ingredient in building a profile for the shopping
centre. 30 Sport has always had a strong connection to place, as seen in the pride
invested in a home-town team, the loyalty of many alumni (at least in the US and
England) for the school they attended, and national allegiances that come into play
in international sports competitions. Well aware of this loyalty and the commercial
possibilities it carries with it, Solna Centre was designed to encourage the connection
between shopping and sport. We have already mentioned some of the efforts
expended in that direction, the wall paintings of soccer players along the main
passage through the mall, and the special ‘AIK day’ event the year the team won the
national cup. Here we consider in what ways the shopping centre’s connection to
sport and to the AIK team in particular serves to particularize Solna Centre’s rela-
tionship to place, identifying the shopping centre with a specific locale. We examine
what Appadurai describes as the production of locality, in which the efforts expended
in this production are more important than the particularities of local knowledge. 31
AIK won the Swedish premier league in 1998, and the player who scored the
winning goal was the first to be designated ‘Solna’s Person of the Year’. At the victory
party following the match, Alexander Östlund gave the mayor the left shoe he had
worn when he scored the goal (1-0 over Örgryte). After consulting some local busi-
ness representatives, the major appointed a jury to make the award, and the ‘golden
shoe’ was put on display in a glass case next to the information desk in Solna Centre.
The following year Östlund’s shoe was moved to a larger case in front of the City Hall
where it was displayed together with pictures of the Person of the Year and Club of
the Year for 2000, and a text explaining its significance. The commemoration of this
victory survived as a continuing point of local pride.
Management has a grand vision of glassing in the entire area between the shopping
centre and the stadium. In 2005, Solna decided to build a large ‘national’ arena,
inspired by the new Amsterdam Arena that happens to be in the same city as
Rodamco’s main office. Solna won the competition with a similar proposal for a new

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