The social acceptability of large-scale technologies depends upon a wide range of things, some related to safety and economics, but also some factors of cultural, social and psychological significance. However, many risk analysts assume that public opposition to technologies is mostly due to unfounded fears of their risks and, that there can exist quantitative criteria of “acceptable risk” that could allow the acceptability of technologies to be judged. This paper traces the emergence of the “acceptable risk” problem formulation and reviews critically some of the approaches that have been put forward to “solve” it. It concludes by discussing the problem of acceptable technology returned to its wider political and cultural context.