Swedish Institute
FounderGovernment of Sweden
TypeCultural institution
Area served
Worldwide
ProductSwedish cultural education

The Swedish Institute (SI) is a public agency that builds interest and trust in Sweden around the world.

They work with Sweden promotion, cooperation in the Baltic Sea region and global development.

SI shares information about Sweden abroad and analyses how other countries view Sweden. They also facilitate international exchanges and partnerships. The goal is to increase awareness of Sweden and build good relationships with individuals, organisations and other countries. If the world around us has a high level of trust in Sweden, it improves the conditions for trade, investment, tourism and cultural exchange. It also makes it easier to attract international talent and contribute to global sustainable development.

SI communicates Sweden in various ways – in our digital channels and in printed materials, by providing support to Swedish language teaching around the world and marketing Sweden as a study destination.

As part of the cooperation in the Baltic Sea region, SI funds exchanges and joint projects for individuals, organisations and companies. By offering study grants, organising leadership programmes and supporting local alumni networks, we build relationships with the world’s young leaders of tomorrow and contribute to global development.

To succeed in this mission, it is important to understand how Sweden is perceived, and in order to do so they observe and analyse the image of Sweden abroad, monitor what is written about Sweden in international news media and digital platforms, conduct own studies and examine Sweden’s rankings in various indexes.

The main office of the Swedish Institute is in Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm. There is also a branch abroad; the Swedish Cultural Centre in Paris (French: Centre Culturel Suédois). The agency has approximately 140 members of staff and its board is appointed by the Government of Sweden.

In early 2007 the Swedish Institute stated it was planning to set up an "embassy", the "House of Sweden", in Second Life, 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.[1]

Other Swedish embassies in foreign countries are under the direct authority and control of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Twitter account @sweden

The Swedish Institute is responsible for the Twitter account @Sweden where a new "curator" is selected to tweet every 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.[2]

When media, with support from the constitutional Principle of Public Access, asked to review the list of blocked accounts the government agency deleted it.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Agence France-Presse (January 26, 2007). "Sweden to set up embassy in Second Life". thelocal.se. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Sweden's official Twitter account blocks (then unblocks) 14,000 users in hate speech controversy". The Local. 17 May 2017. pp. 170–188.
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