The popular cooperative technological incubators (ITCP’s) work in about twenty Brazilian universities. Their aim is to support the consolidation of viable economic initiatives which generate work and income and are founded in self-management principles. The relation between university and community – or among incubators and cooperatives – goes through a pedagogical process intertwined with exchanges between “common sense” and “academic knowledge”. Nevertheless, the regional differences, the institutional differences of the many universities, and the different theoretical and methodological perspectives of the actors involved led to the upcoming of different methodologies and work structure. This work intends to compare various incubators, identifying their common features and their most significant differences.