  We study collective interaction effects that result from the change of free
quantum electrodynamic field fluctuations by one- and two-dimensional perfect
metal structures. The Casimir interactions in geometries containing plates and
cylinders is explicitly computed using partial wave expansions of constrained
path integrals. We generalize previously obtained results and provide a more
detailed description of the technical aspects of the approach \cite{Emig06}. We
find that the interactions involving cylinders have a weak logarithmic
dependence on the cylinder radius, reflecting that one-dimensional
perturbations are marginally relevant in 4D space-time. For geometries
containing two cylinders and one or two plates, we confirm a previously found
non-monotonic dependence of the interaction on the object's separations which
does not follow from pair-wise summation of two-body forces. Qualitatively,
this effect is explained in terms of fluctuating charges and currents and their
mirror images.
