ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to highlight the value of multilevel governance as an analytical lens for understanding emergent practices of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM). It starts with an outline of the multilevel governance literature (MGL) and its central tenets and limitations. It then applies multilevel governance to a discussion of three key themes. First, the increasingly contested role of the nation-state in shaping and delivering policy objectives. Second, the tensions between different levels of government and the spatial contestation manifest within this through emerging institutional arrangements and practices. Third, the future policy choices that are likely to shape future multilevel governance practices. We argue that multilevel governance is a valuable framework through which to begin to identify the scalar politics and contestation, policy design choices, and contingencies inherent within the development of AAM, and which require further theoretical and empirical scrutiny. The chapter also highlights how such contestation over scale is one of the main challenges for the transition to AAM.
