Maybe only commonality is that it's functorial in nature *
*As well as in the wild ;).
Edit: In Algebraic Topology, given f: X-->Y, and groups G/N in X, G'/N' in Y( some (co) homology or Homotopy groups associated to each of X,Y, with N normal in G. N' normal in G), often designated as i* I believe they're of the form:
i*([a])=([f([a])]), from G/N to G'/N'. So a map between cosets.
So, e.g., the homotopy class [a] of ## \pi_1(X)## as above, is sent to the class [f(a)] in ##\pi_1(Y)##.