The Swedish Institute (, ) is a
government agency in Sweden with the responsibility to spread information about
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
outside the country. It exists to promote Swedish interests, and to organise exchanges with other countries in different areas of public life, in particular in the spheres of
culture
Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
,
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
, and
research
Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to ...
.
The main office of the Swedish Institute is located in
Hammarby Sjöstad in
Stockholm
Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...
. There is also a branch abroad; the
Swedish Cultural Centre in Paris (). The agency has approximately 140 members of staff and its board is appointed by the
Government of Sweden
The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden () is the Cabinet (government), national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's Executive (government), executive authority.
The Government consists of the Prime Minister of Sweden, Prime Minister and their ...
.
In early 2007 the Swedish Institute stated it was planning to set up an "embassy", the "House of Sweden", in
Second Life
''Second Life'' is a multiplayer virtual world that allows people to create an Avatar (computing), avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user-created content within a multi-user online environment. Developed for person ...
, an Internet-based virtual world. This virtual office is not intended to provide passports or visas, but serve as a point of information about Sweden.
Other Swedish embassies in foreign countries are under the direct authority and control of the
Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Projects
The Twitter account @sweden
The Swedish Institute is responsible for running the Twitter account @Sweden.
From 2011 to 2018 the account was the location of the Curators of Sweden project, where a new "curator" was selected to tweet from the account each week.
In 2017, SI blocked 14,000 Twitter accounts from interacting with @Sweden. Among the blocked were journalists, authors, politicians, businessmen and ambassadors. When the block list was reported in the media, SI lifted the blocks and apologized.
When media, with support from the constitutional
Principle of Public Access, asked to review the list of blocked accounts the government agency deleted it.
The Swedish Number
The Swedish Institute was one of the four associations involved in the development of The Swedish Number.
See also
*
Swedish Institute Alexandria
*
Cultural Diplomacy
*
Public diplomacy
In international relations, public diplomacy broadly speaking, is any of the various government-sponsored efforts aimed at communicating directly with foreign publics to establish a dialogue designed to inform and influence with the aim of bui ...
*
British Council
*
Alliance Française
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swedish Institute
Government agencies of Sweden
Foreign relations of Sweden
Cultural promotion organizations
Culture of Sweden