The aim of this comparative study was to explore how community work is being undertakenin marginalized urban settings in Germany and Sweden, in relation to changing contexts ofrespective welfare models. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in neighborhoods inGävle, Sweden, and Paderborn, Germany, and were analyzed by abductive thematic discourseanalysis, using Atlas.ti and MaxQData. The results showed that community work in the respectivesettings is affected by lack of sufficient resources to meet increasing levels of social exclusion,related to ongoing transformation processes of the welfare regimes, and there is a lack ofcollective empowerment perspectives for social change.