ABSTRACT Outreach work has been praised for its inclusionary potential and problematised for reproducing exclusion mechanisms. This study investigates these dynamics by exploring how spatial dimensions shape outreach work. Its point of departure is social workers employed in NGO-based initiatives in Norway. Focusing on the spatial context includes social workers’ relation to other actors who use and produce these urban spaces. In this case, the concern for and interaction with security guards is central to the social workers’ everyday work. While organised around different functions, both actors can be considered central in responding to marginalisation issues. Concerns in the literature on both outreach work and security guards’ policing include ways in which these care and order practices are engaged in mechanisms of social control and repression. The findings show how the two actors relate to each other, oppose and reproduce spatial ruling in complex ways. While their practices are shaped by spatial relations of power, dynamics of spatial in/exclusion are also constituted by embodied experiences of encounters with people subject to processes of marginalisation. As opposed to research focusing on social arrangements, this study contributes to understanding ways in which spatial dimensions of outreach work is significant.