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study, corresponding to the three main dimensions of power and resistance presented
in Chapter 2. (1) The first section concentrates on the political front lines and strug-
gles that specifically point at the role of the state system. The main focus is on the
inter-systemic relations between local municipality institutions for public services
and the shopping centre as a commercial market actor, but internal tensions between
different levels and institutions in the state sector are also mentioned. (2) The second
section focuses on economic struggles mainly related to the market system, in par-
ticular the intra-systemic interest conflicts between the management of Solna Centre
and the individual enterprises and shops that operate within its walls. (3) The third
section discusses how cultural front lines primarily involve civil society actors who as
customers, visitors and users of the city centre space collide with the owners, manage-
ment and sales companies that together represent the shopping centre at large. This
section explicitly thematizes relationships between the market system and the life-
world, but it also briefly touches upon tensions between civil society and the state, as
well as the many internal divisions that cross civil society itself. It leads to a discus-
sion of cultural citizenship and communicative media rights. (4) The chapter then
concludes by summing up our arguments in the form of a new agenda for cultural
studies of media consumption.

POLITICAL FRONTLINES: STATE AND MUNICIPALITY
The state controls a wide range of institutions with administrative power that is based
on (and legitimated by) the political power developed through the parliamentary
system. There are several internal tensions within this hierarchically ordered state
system. One such front line runs between the national level and the local munici-
pality, where national laws, taxes and political measurements are balanced and some-
times compete with local and regional regulations and actions. Solna had a stabile
conservative majority, while Sweden has for most periods had social democratic
governments. Solna’s markedly market-friendly policy can therefore sometimes
collide with directives from the national state level. Still, there has been a surprisingly
strong consensus between the social democrats and the conservatives around the
issues of privatization, and no really strong opposition to the selling out of Solna city
centre have been voiced even within the local council. But there are certainly internal
differences and struggles running between – and within – different local institutions,
for instance in the debates in the local council around freedom of expression issues
in Solna Centre, or minor frictions between different unities within the local
community. These could also involve individuals and groups in civil society, in ways
that will soon be further discussed.
However, in our empirical material, the power struggles between the local state
representatives and the shopping centre were the most striking ones. They related to
the centre’s ambiguous position on the border between private and public. In some
respects, all spaces are ambiguous or ambivalent, only to varying degrees. Just like
Benjamin’s Paris arcades, Solna Centre is both house and street, with glass roof and
entrance doors, but also named street and shop entrances. A further ambiguity

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