The Department of Social and Economic History at the College of Linz was established on October 2, 1967, with the appointment of Gustav Otruba as "Extraordinarius". In a ten-year retrospective, Otruba initially lamented about "great instastructural and personnel difficulties." In 1968, Rudolf Kropf was hired as a university assistant and the secretary's office was filled a year later. In 1970, Otruba was appointed a full university professor. The "Lehrkanzel für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte" (Chair of Social and Economic History) as it was called at that time was also responsible for the subject of ethnography, represented by Ernst Burgstaller. Later, Udo B. Wiesinger joined the institute as a second assistant.

The name "Department of Social and Economic History" was programmatic because in Vienna, the respective department was called "Department of Economic and Social History". There were two history institutes at the college in 1970: the department headed by Gustav Otruba and later by Rudolf Kropf, and the Department of Modern History and Contemporary History under Karl Stadler. Both departments contributed significantly to degree programs ranging from sociology and business administration to economics, and were intended to open students' eyes with regard to their subjects' historical dimension. Soon, the research efforts by social and economic historians focused on industrial history in various facets, including not only business history, but also questions regarding social structure and the organizational history of the laborers’ movement. Furthermore, among the innovative activities at that time was the involvement with historical metrology and historical women's studies. The College of Linz became a university in 1975, and from that point on, the department became a university department.

The first generational change took place at the Department of Social and Economic History at the end of the 1980s. Roman Sandgruber succeeded Gustav Otruba as professor in 1988, Michael John had come from Vienna to Linz as a contract assistant, Josef Moser had become a university assistant, and the ranks of lecturers and other staff had expanded considerably, welcoming Gerhard Pfeisinger, Gerhard Stadler, Andrea Komlosy, Susan Zimmermann, Wolfgang Maderthaner and others. In this regard, there were people working at both departments who represented prominent positions within Austrian historical sciences and who also brought their expertise to the university. In 1992, Michael Pammer worked at the institute, introducing new research questions, quantitative methods, and a stronger international direction. In 2001, Michael John and Michael Pammer were appointed associate university professors.

The institute was now characterized by broadly diversified questions ranging from regional to European economic and social history. Methodologically, a broad arc was spanned: from the classical study of records to quantifying, cliometric and economic methods to oral history, video history, ethnological methods and applied history. Bernd Kreuzer eventually brought an emphasis on the history of transportation to the institute, but this was lost when he left the department. In 1998, the department established a post-graduate course in tourism management. Herta Neiß, a researcher and lecturer at the department, has also been the managing director for many years. Since then, tourism history has also been part of the department's range of subject areas.

Roman Sandgruber left his mark on the institute over a long period of time, and also served as chairman of the Senate of the University of Linz in a university-wide context. After he retired in 2015, Michael John took over the chair function. The next generation change took place during Winter Semester 2016/2017: The institute's chairs Gustav Otruba, Rudolf Kropf, Roman Sandgruber and Michael John were succeeded by Ernst Langthaler. Following Monika Horner and Karin Triebert, the secretary's office was now occupied by Astrid Faltinger, followed by Katharina Süß, Heidelinde Derntl-Pechak and Madeleine Neumüller.

Ernst Langthaler was educated at the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Vienna as well. New accents have been and are now being set: global and regional history, agricultural and food history as well as environmental and technological history joined the main topics of economy and society. The teaching and research focus Interdisciplinary Commodity Studies was also established at the Institute. New research assistants Sofie Pfannerer-Mittas and Jonas Albrecht joined the institute, followed by Lisa Maria Hofer and Marian Niedermayr, increasing the number of academic staff to five. Following Michael John's retirement, Klemens Kaps joined the department as a senior lecturer and researcher. For the first time, the Department of Social and Economic History, together with the Department of Modern and Contemporary History, was responsible for its own study program: the teacher education program in history, social sciences and political education (Bachelor's and Master's degree programs). The department is also particularly important as part of the doctoral degree programs in humanities and cultural studies as well as social sciences and economics.

At the turn of the year 2023/24, the Senate of the JKU Linz approved the extension of the name to "Department of Economic, Social and Environmental History". The department had already gained (inter)national recognition for its environmental history activities in previous years. These included the kick-off of the Austrian-wide “Economic, Social and Environmental History PhD Conference”, which has been held annually at different universities ever since. The extension acknowledges the increasing importance of socio-ecological issues (e.g. "Anthropocene") in science and society. The extended field of activity connects the department's previous emphasis on economic and social history with the new focus on environmental history. The Interdisciplinary Commodity Studies working group, coordinated by Ernst Langthaler, was upgraded to a separate Lab of the Linz Institute of Transformative Change.