Appropriation is one of those many nouns that come from a verb, in this case from the verb appropriate. Generally speaking, there is an appropriation when something passes from one owner to another. Thus, if I say "my friend has appropriated my bicycle" it is implied that something has changed ownership. Naturally, such an action may be within the law or the margin of it.
Cultural appropriation
In cultural terms, an appropriation occurs when one culture absorbs another. This phenomenon can occur in several contexts:
1) in border areas where two communities maintain close ties and one of them ends up imposing itself on the other,
2) in situations of political domination , in which one country appropriates another through an occupation and subjects it politically and culturally and
3) In the globalized world, the dominant Western culture is associated with a certain appropriation of minority cultural traditions.
In the business sphere and in relations between the state and citizens
Companies compete with each other in the framework of a free competition market In this context, it is common for one company to appropriate the clients of another through some strategy (for example, for more attractive prices for consumers or for a good marketing campaign). In these types of situations, the appropriation is absolutely legal.
A state can appropriate an individual's assets for various reasons: because their assets have been seized or for the general interest (for example, an expropriation of land).
In the sphere of law
The concept of misappropriation is frequently used in legal terminology. Normally it is talked about when after a contract or agreement, a good or capital must be returned because it is thus included in said contract. If this does not happen, a crime of misappropriation is incurred. Among economic crimes, misappropriation is one of the most common, along with fraud and forgery.
In the field of philosophy
Some philosophical approaches consider that through language we humans appropriate reality. Thus, language not only allows us to communicate and transmit ideas and feelings , it is also a mechanism to understand the world as a whole, that is, for our mind to appropriate everything in the world.