1.1 Aim of Dissertation
Urban theory and construction has been “in vogue” as a concept over the last decade, with the enlargement of the European Union, with the entrance of eastern block countries, we have seen the construction of EU economic and social policy embrace the necessity of macro and micro policies that have assisted and developed the sea ports of the Union. This interesting area provides a comparative basis for understanding some of the constructs of urban policy, in particular European Urban Policy.

In this respect, this dissertation will consider a comparison of the Port of Riga, a new Latvian entrant to the EU and the seasoned “veteran” port of Rotterdam, these two ports have similar constructs and are competitive rivals for inter world trade. These ports have similar geographical constructs and are urbanised within the European Union (EU). However, what is of interest is that, the Port of Riga is a new addition to the EU following EU enlargement in recent years. The Port of Rotterdam, has been part of the EU for over two decades and as such has been able to embrace the concept of urbanisation through the incentives provided through EU development, and urbanisation strategy that embraces, the socio-economic constructs of a large state that is Europe; to include the necessary concept of community sustainability, this concept can be seen in both the macro and micro construct .

1.2 Research Hypothesis
The hypothesis under consideration is: “Riga's port territories regeneration plan based on a comparative analysis with the port of Rotterdam ” With this hypothesis in mind we shall consider three specific areas of enquiry, firstly we shall conceptualize this study within a brief consideration of European Urban Theory  exposed in literature; secondly, we will consider the rationale for a qualitative case study approach to methodological undertakings of this study; thirdly, we shall consider the research finding gained from a case study approach and finally, we shall then conceptualize the findings in relation to the literature and draw appropriate conclusions.

1.3 Structure of Dissertation
This dissertation will be divided into five chapters. First chapter is introduction.
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Overall, having introduced the nature of the enquiry we can now proceed to consider briefly the current debate in literature.

 
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

The nature of urban policy has in recent year been debated and discussed within academic circles to the point where this empirical debate now firmly conceptualizes within the study of both macro and micro models . The construction of the debate is too vast for this study therefore, we shall conceptualize the nature of the literary debate within European policy, that current impacts upon the nature of the regeneration of urban ports and their geographical and economic communities.