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About the Journal
Focus and Scope
Moving the Social: Journal of Social History and the History of Social Movements is an international and peer-reviewed journal rooted in the discipline of history but with an explicit interest in work produced on social affairs and social movements by other disciplines, in particular the social sciences, geography, anthropology and ethnology. It is particularly keen to promote transnational and comparative perspectives on the history of social movements set in a wider context of social history. The journal is currently published three times a year, with issues either on a specific theme or as a thematically mixed issue. Most issues also include a comprehensive review article, at least one of which each year covers the most recent publications in the field of social movement studies.
Moving the Social publishes research at the cutting edge of social movement history, broadly defined. This involves in particular the analysis of the diversity of economic, social, political and mental structures of social movements and the introduction of new research that is relevant to the field of social movement studies.
The editors also welcome submissions on a broad range of themes, including national movements, regional and global perspectives on social history, as well as the history and theory of historiography, especially where historiographies of social movements and theoretical perspectives on social history are concerned. Of particular interest is the history of regions of heavy industry and their industrial heritage, a field in which the journal enjoys a strong tradition.
The editors invite proposals for future special issues and submissions of individual manuscripts.
Peer Review Process
Moving the Social is a peer reviewed journal. We use a double-blind review process with two external experts for each article.
For thematically mixed volumes, the editorial team will select external experts in fields of research covered by the individual papers, who will be asked to submit their assessment of the respective article.
For guest edited thematic volumes, Guest Editors and Moving the Social’s editors cooperate in selecting potential peers.
If one of the two referees has decided that the article cannot be published, a third review may be organised.
If both initial reviews, or - in case of a third review - two of three reports are positive, the article may be published.
Authors are expected to respond to the reviews and make amendments as requested by the referees, or provide reasons why they have chosen not to do so.
The final decision for or against publication will be made by Moving the Social's Editors alone for thematically mixed issues. For guest edited volumes, the decision will be made by the Guest Editors and Moving the Social’s editors jointly.
Sponsors
The internet pages of Moving the Social are brought to you with kind support from the Open Access Support Team of the University Library of Ruhr-Universität Bochum. They can be contacted at oa@rub.de.
MTS is published with the kind support of the "Verein zur Förderung des Instituts für Soziale Bewegungen e.V."
Journal History
Until 2023 Moving the Social (MTS) was published by Klartext publishers. Since 2024 MTS is published by Böhlau, one of the foremost academic publishers in Germany and the Institute for Social Movements of Ruhr University Bochum.
The journal is the successor of the Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen which has been regularly published at the Institute for Social Movements since 1977.
The journal is the successor of the Mitteilungsblatt des Instituts für soziale Bewegungen which has been regularly published at the Institute for Social Movements since 1977.
The new English title, introduced in issue 47 (2012), stands for the internationalisation of the journal under its new editorial team, which welcomes articles on the “old” labour movements, “new” social movements, and on contemporary global problems such as climate change, neoliberalism, the extreme right, migration and human rights.
All back issues of the Mitteilungsblatt and of MTS were retro-digitized with the kind support of the University Library Bochum. Moving the Social expanded to a digital and print edition in 2015.
