Community workers traditionally have a tendency to be very critical towards their own profession. Especially in the 1970s and 1980s, many community workers were afraid that structural conditions would prevent them from fulfilling an emancipatory role or, worse, that they would become part of a system of social control. In the discussion about the profession, the work of philosophers played an important role. In this paper we examine interpretations of two philosophers who were particularly influential among community workers: Foucault and Habermas. We cast doubts about the way in which these philosophers were used to discredit community work and develop an alternative interpretation that does justice to the profession as well as the work of these philosophers.